Nahnatchka Khan Quotes

We have to stop this stereotype that for girls it's about being in pink and horse riding. We need to teach kids to think outside the box, to dare girls to be different.

Sometimes they try to put you inside a box, but I look at my filmography and I've been able to do a lot.

I just want different narratives for people of color, especially women of color. I just want something that's different. I don't want us to be put in a box. I want it to be kind of a redefinition of who were are. If I can even achieve that in a tiny way, I'll be good. I'll be good.

If you are a woman and an actor, it does not mean that you have to contain or limit yourself to just being that.

These days we don’t have to fit into something other people think we are. We’ve leveled the playing field, life is inclusive. I’m a mom, sex detective, wife, fearless, gentle — we can now, with grace, be all of what we are.

There are a lot of stereotypes to be broken which I think a lot of us are doing. What I do is, as soon as people try to pin me down to one kind of part, I'll play a very different kind of role, so it explodes that stereotype.

You don't want to pigeonhole yourself.

I'd love for there to be a situation - a world in which that's just not even a question anymore. We are all filmmakers - different stripes, genders, sexual orientations, colors - and our work can be taken on its own terms. I'm really looking forward to that day.

I never want to be just one thing - I want to be multidimensional.

I think that a woman wears so many hats, we have so many aspects to us that we're not just one thing. We represent so much within us and that kind of comes across for me as a designer through mixing prints and colors.

My goal is to send a message to Muslim women and young women everywhere that it's okay to break stereotypes and be yourself.

A lot of people get pigeonholed because it makes it easier to understand them - or assume you understand them. I think the way you break away from that is by constantly doing different jobs.

What I am trying to do is create a space for people to explore what they want to be, as opposed to fit into a label that they have been given.

I think in general, and in the film industry, that idea of having only one type of girl is changing. There's more variety because it's the world we live, and we want to portray that.

I feel like my shows have always been a place where people can wear and be and seem however they want, and it's a heartening event.

I'm not like, 'I'm a famous doula.' I'm a doula. I'm trying to find a way to get rid of the stigma around 'You're the singer; You're the actor' - we have to be able to do more than one thing.

We like that when girls look at us, they don't see perfect little blond-haired, blue-eyed Barbie dolls.

At the end of the day we need to experiment and if we start being too cautious, we'll end up working with the same actors and doing the same roles. That's how people get stereotyped.

Filmmakers have role for everyone today. There are no stereotypical roles.

Fashion hasn't changed enough yet. There's too much a stereotype of beauty.

Maybe if I'd agreed to do the debutante thing like she wanted. Or taken up pageants instead of riding jump bikes with a bunch of grungy boys. I'd always tell her, why can't I do both? Who says you have to be either smart or pretty, or into girly stuff or sports? Life shouldn't be about the either/or. We're capable of more than that, you know?

Women writers of all people should know better than to pigeonhole women, put them in little groups, the smart one, the sweet one.

I'm just an entertainer, man. I don't like to pigeonhole myself to anything. I love to do it all.

It's been helpful to have so many opportunities to look different so people stop pigeonholing you.