Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't chase beauty trends.
I often feel failed by feminism.
I'm an island girl, so I love super bronzy skin!
Curiosity is vital to the growth of our society.
The Internet has introduced me to some of my closest friends.
We need space to discuss unspoken, uncomfortable dark truths.
We must have the audacity to turn up the frequency of our truths.
Be stingy with your time and spend it in spaces that fill you up.
Our visibility shouldn’t be subject to such extreme circumstances.
In seventh grade, I met my best friend Wendi, who is a trans woman.
Hawaii was so integral to my journey. I was just there at the right time.
If anyone can be said to embody the American Dream, it's Kim Kardashian West.
In the evening, I use a cleansing oil - coconut oil also works - to remove makeup.
Throughout the day, I like to spritz my face with a rose water for extra moisture.
Women are so policed and devalued and dehumanized when it comes to the work they do.
To say that I loved school would be an understatement. It was my oasis, my sanctuary.
We are all part of a larger collective looking to create a more beautiful and just world.
I don't have to explain anything to trans women. Trans women know exactly what's going on.
I spent my life navigating systems built upon me - a black child in America - not making it out.
My parents split before my fifth birthday, and I moved with Mom and my three siblings to her native Oahu.
Trans women of color dangerously fall in between the cracks of racial justice, feminist and LGbt movements.
What keeps me going is that quest for just being able to be present and be myself. Not for people, but for me.
As an activist who uses storytelling to combat stigma, I have always been adamant that we tell our own stories.
We cannot and should not be reduced to just one sliver of ourselves, as it skews the truth of our lived experiences.
Stern and critical, my father couldn't accept how feminine and dainty I was in comparison to my rough-and-tumble brother.
If we want to enlighten people or give them new thoughts and ideas, we have to be willing to do the work of educating them.
I think millennials are the most woke generation because they understand that differences are just in the fabric of who we are.
Popular culture is most powerful when it offers us a vision of how our society should look - or at least reproduces our reality.
It is the world's limitations and the myths that we internalize about ourselves that pushes us to diminish our power and ignore it.
I knew very early on that I was not pretty. No one ever called me pretty. It was not the go-to adjective people used to describe me.
As a visible and outspoken trans woman myself, I know that it's rare not to have your trans-ness lead the way for you in public spaces.
I would advise any 17-year-old to surround yourself with people who listen to you, nod when you speak, and smile when you enter spaces.
A staple in my makeup bag is Black Opal's True Color Skin Perfecting Stick Foundation, which offers a range of colors with many undertones.
Movies have always been spaces of refuge for me. For a few harmonious hours, I could escape my reality of being a girl living on the margins.
I know intimately the struggle of trying to live your life and be yourself while feeling the pressure of an entire community on your shoulders.
I just love to glow, glow glow, so with my skincare and makeup routine, I gravitate to products that help me achieve that sun-kissed, dewy look.
When marginalized people gain voice and center their own experiences, things begin changing. And we see this in all kinds of grassroots movements.
What helps me when someone puts me down or aims to offend me is to not take what they say personally. I try my best to not internalize their comments.
I walk in the world as a woman because I am a woman, and people should take me as that. I'm not passing as anything that I'm not. I'm just being myself.
I hope being honest about my experiences and contextualizing them empowers young women to step into their truths, tell their own stories, and live visibly.
I think about Ellen DeGeneres, seeing her every single day on a show. Her identity is there every day, but what leads the way is her talent and how much you like her.
I learned to hide aspects of my personality. Playing with girls was fine, for example, but playing with their Barbies was something I could do only behind closed doors.
On my road to self-discovery, only certain terms were available - I didn't use 'trans' or 'transgender' until junior high school, but I was living as trans much earlier.
Desire, and the ways in which men perform their masculinity and feel as if they can take up space and say anything about your body, have always been a dangerous space for me.
Our differences are what make us great. Let us think about how we can extend this appreciation to people of color, undocumented immigrants, and other members of the community.
There's a burden of responsibility for me to show up correct - in my head, if I don't do it right, then I'll get shut out, and then other trans women of color will be shut out.
Trans folk, especially of color, should not be obligated to help cis folk play catch-up on our experiences. The effort can detract from our work to protect and liberate ourselves.
Great conversations always spark in a genuine interest to recognize and know the other person's story and, therefore, recognizing and understanding and celebrating their humanity.
I was born outraged. I was born without, knowing my people were not counted, not included, not centered. I struggled through low-resourced schools, communities, and housing projects.
I wrote 'Redefining Realness' because not enough of our stories are being told, and I believe we need stories that reflect us so we don't feel so isolated in our apparent 'difference.'