“You can’t fight for people to be in your life. You can’t fight for people who aren’t fighting back for you. Today, it’s you against the world. You may have a small group of people, and that’s great, but at the end of the day, you’re the leader of yourself.

You have to set the table for yourself. You invite who you want to your own table. But you can’t fight to be at everyone else’s table.”

“Growing up, I didn’t really know my black side. After my dad died, that side of the family didn’t want anything to do with me and my mom because my mom is white.

I was the whitest black girl in Johnson County. That’s how people thought of me.

It’s been hard to really understand my role or my place in the social justice issues. I believe in it, I fight for it. But because I grew up differently and not around as many black people, it’s really hard to voice it now.”

“Being a woman is incredible to me. It tells the world how powerful someone really is. Women do a lot of things that a lot of people, particularly men, think we can’t do. In today’s society, women left and right are proving everyone wrong. They are becoming vice president, becoming governors … showing the world that we can do things better in heels.

As a child, I always thought everyone was pretty much equal. You’re a boy. I’m a girl. Otherwise, everything is equal. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that there is so much more I can give as a woman … more than men can.

I don’t think now that we’re all equal. Men have more power in certain things, but women are much more powerful in other ways. I do think we should all be treated equally, but I don’t think that means we’re equal.”

“Struggled with self-image my whole life. I didn’t accept me for who I was. Now I look back and wish I did because I was so much skinnier then. But I’ve always been curvier. I’ve danced my whole life, so I’m thicker. And ‘thick’ wasn’t a thing until I was in high school. Before that, it’s just that you were fat. Guys didn’t like that.

But perspective is powerful. I am not on this earth for my weight, my height, pant size, or anything like that to matter to anyone. It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t weigh myself. I don’t care what size I am. I care about how I feel more than anything.

I am so grateful for the body that God gave me and what I can do. There are so many people who can’t walk, can’t dance, who weren’t gifted with legs. My legs are my greatest insecurity, but they’re also my greatest blessing. They get me where I need to be.”

“What I’m not for is people attacking someone for that person having an opinion. I’m very opinionated, but I’m not going to attack you or make you feel like shit for yours.”