Erin O'Toole Quotes

While books expand horizons by exposing us to worlds outside our own, children also need to see themselves, their experiences and their cultures reflected in books they read. Unfortunately, for too many children, this is not the norm.

I feel like I'm opening the doors for more people. That they feel more comfortable being out. Especially in the hip-hop community.

I did not want my tombstone to read, 'She kept a really clean house.' I think I'd like them to remember me by saying, 'She opened government to everyone.'

I loved reading when I grew up but did feel totally invisible because I couldn't see myself and my life reflected in the books I was reading.

In the long run, we will need many more African-American, Latino, and Native American leaders, and leaders from low-income communities, who can bring additional insight and a deeply grounded sense of urgency, and who are the most likely to inspire the necessary trust and engagement among students' parents and community leaders.

We all know the power of film; we all know there's almost nothing more powerful than to see people on film that look and talk like you, like we do.

It meant something to see people who looked like me in comic books. It was this beautiful place that I felt pop culture should look like.

Open a door for the disaffected of your State to come in.

If everyone in your class has heroes, and they can relate to them in textbooks and literature, and then you don't see any of your heritage there, you feel less than. And I always wanted to be able to make Latin kids like myself feel more than.

I'm Puerto Rican, but I represent everybody.

The demographic complexity of this country should be reflected not only at the end of the chain, but since the beginning, in order that more of these people can be excited and integrated.

While there are plenty of reasons that we lost in 2016, there's at least one that we can definitely fix for next time: We can make sure that no one is left behind in where we go, in who we talk to, in what we say, and in what we do.

I can't imagine how hard it must be to invest in a community... when you don't feel heard and when you don't feel seen.

I hope that there's a little black boy somewhere in Montana that never thought that he would see a reflection of himself, and he turns on the television, like, 'Oh my God, thank you.'

Look, yes, I'm a Muslim woman and I want to bring my community to the table, but I also want to make sure that I'm not being tokenized.

There's room for everyone, and everyone is wanted and needed. Whoopi showed me that. When I first saw 'The Color Purple,' it was so huge. That was the first time I had seen myself, my mother, my aunts, women that I had known my whole life on-screen. It gives us hope, and it gives us confidence.

I like the idea of a broader range of people feeling seen.

There is power in seeing a face that looks like yours do something, be someone. There is power in moving from the sidelines to the center.

Every fan interaction I have when someone tells me they can look to their television screens and see themselves reflected in me is a dream come true.

I like to give a voice to others, especially things neglected or despised.

For those of you who are underrepresented in technology, know that you've always been here. Look in photos and see yourself reflecting back.

I'm trying to appeal to the disenfranchised everybody, not just specifically gay.

It matters whether women sit at the table. No one speaks up for you when you are standing outside with your nose pressed up against the glass. You cannot window-shop for power.

I want to speak for people that may not feel like they're being spoken for at the moment. And I want to make a connection between the world around us and the charts.

In a television interview, I said that diversity in our children's books should include the adventures of disabled children, travellers and gipsies, LGBT teens, different cultures, classes, colours, religions. It shouldn't be a token gesture, nor do such stories need to be 'issue-based'.