When I go back to family reunions everybody goes, 'Hey cousin! Hey Auntie!' And I'm like, 'Okay I don't know you, I have no idea who you are.' I am auntie and cousin for so many and even the ones in prison call me collect. And I'll be like, 'Which of my family members are giving you this phone number?'
I look to my family for my support. I'm fortunate to have a big family.
I'm very close with my family, so my mom is part of my entourage.
My mom's one of 13 siblings, and they all got six kids, and till I was 13 everybody was in Compton.
They've found a way to privately, or within a small family group, share expressions, or other images, drawings, and then gain access to some of the world's great expressions and images and make them real, make them tangible.
Even now, my husband Jerry, our son Matthew and I live only five minutes away from my parents home, and my brothers live about ten minutes away. It's been great having such a supportive family.
I have never worried if my daughter has fallen sick, and I am somewhere else, because there is always somebody to take care of her.
So I have, like, more than a 100 cousins all over the world now.
In truth, I am a single mother. But I don't feel alone at all in parenting my daughter. Krishna has a whole other side of her family who loves her, too. And so Krishna is parented by me, but also by her grandmother and aunts and cousins and uncles and friends.
My family and I moved at least six times before I graduated high school. I was fortunate to have a large family network that combined their resources to help me accomplish my goals - but not everyone may be as lucky.
There were always other children in our house, even though I'm an only child - there were always these other kids coming by.
My daughters all have aunties who help out. It takes a village.
I cannot step into any day without help. I have a fantastically engaged husband who is very present for his children and our family life. We've got a brilliant nanny, other help from parents-in-law, godparents, friends. Also, I've had incredible women around me in the business.
I think everyone around me played a part in raising me; there isn't one individual I could pick out - it was more a case of it taking the whole village to raise the child.
I remember, my mom didn't have any help, so if she needed to be somewhere after school, we'd just go down to the neighbors' and she'd give us a snack and make sure we did our homework. There weren't any latchkey kids.
Our structure has always been two homes, and that's all my son has ever known. So you balance it. Make sure you have good support with your family and friends and nannies.
