Tracee Ellis Ross Quotes

Black women, dark skin women are the original beautiful people to me.

To me, being a black woman and being beautiful are not mutually exclusive.

I embrace my darker skin - always have, always will. In addition, I believe black women have always been trailblazers and trendsetters. Acknowledgement or not, we are and always have been beautiful.

I just want to continue to break barriers and to show the industry and the world that beauty is diverse, and you don't have to be a certain stereotype to be beautiful.

We need to work together to redefine the global image of beauty and continue to push for a more inclusive world.

Once I realized, when I became a plus-size model, that there were more women like me, my confidence immediately shot through the roof.

I didn't even aspire to be a model because I didn't see myself represented, even as simple as the freckles on my skin.

Black women don't have the same body image problems as white women. They are proud of their bodies.

I've never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I'm very proud of that.

My visibility may have gotten Hollywood to redefine what's attractive.

I enjoy stories about thin women - I read them frequently. I enjoy them; I root for those characters, but I always feel like there are enough of them out there and there are enough of them in the spotlight.

What's so kind of beautiful about the whole thing was that everything that made me not right for all of those hundreds of commercial auditions that I went on and no one ever wanted me for is what made me perfectly right for 'Real Women Have Curves'.

I don't care what color you are, what size you are, where you're from. It is disturbing that there's an idea that only tall, thin, willowy, size 0 women are attractive - even for the tall, thin, willowy, size 0 woman! We all should get to feel like there's something powerful and beautiful about who we are.

I'm 5'3'', and not often you get to see that in a magazine. I think that what is so cool about 'Sports Illustrated' is it's all different body shapes, all difference sizes. You have actresses, sports figures, musicians, so it's all about skin deep beauty sort of radiating to the outside, and that's what's so special.

Very few women get asked to be in the swimsuit issue, and I'm really proud to be one of so many beautiful and empowering women.

If there was going to be a pioneer of the plus-size girl of my shape on TV, why not me?

Essence has been home for so many of us for so many years. I always say that Essence was the first place that I felt I was a pretty black girl.

Honestly, at the end of the day, what I want women to know is that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. And that it should not define who you are.

It makes me very happy that people's perceptions of what's beautiful and attractive are gradually changing.

I used to hate my behind, like every other black girl. I hated my behind. I hated my hair. I hated my nose because no one said it was beautiful.

Women are not one-dimensional, we come in different shapes and sizes, and we are all equally beautiful.

It's always been a dream to be in a beauty campaign. Anything that can show girls they can look ethereal at any size.

To see another fat girl on television, I think, is really powerful. I'm happy to open the doors for a younger generation of fat, black women to be visible, to be seen, to be heard.

I did an episode on my talk show on cellulite, and I brought seven women into a dressing room at Nordstrom's in L.A., and we all sat and talked about our cellulite.

Nobody else knew what to do with me because big women are old.