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I'm a huge Russell Westbrook fan. I pretend I know him, I call him Rusty. But I love his style and someone who steps out out of the box and is bold and that's him.
Whether you say I'm too black, I'm not black enough, this is me. I hope people realize that my journey to love doesn't have to be any different just because my skin is.
The 'Bachelor' franchise does believe in happy endings - some people get an on-camera happy ending, some people get on off-camera happy ending, and some people get both.
My dad is a judge, but he started off as an attorney. He is one of my biggest role models; both of my parents are. So, from a young age, I said I wanted to be an attorney.
I've always wanted to get married and have a family, but I'm not the girl who sat down and planned out her wedding, her dress, or how everything would go with the proposal.
Men know what they want when we help them figure it out. We make them think they figured it out by themselves. They really didn't. We know we did it, and that's a woman's job.
I learned it is important to be confident in what you have and drown out all of the outside noise. You can't be distracted by what everyone else is doing and how they are doing it.
I already know what people are going to say about me, and judge me for the decisions that I'm making, and I'm going to be the one who has to deal with that, and nobody else. And that's a lot.
I've learned that I'm a much more traditional bride than I like to admit. Even from the invitations by Ceci New York with the script font. My dress is very traditional, even though it's a little risque.
Being a lawyer is absolutely stressful in its own right. But then, doing 'The Bachelor' and 'The Bachelorette' and all the media afterwards, you can imagine, that's just like a whole new level of stress.
I keep saying this. I don't think men know what they want. Women are here to help them figure out what it is they want. Like, we're the neck. We tell them to turn left, right, front, back, whatever it is.
I'm a black woman and I'm so happy to represent myself in that respect, but I don't want it to be something that defines me and my journey for love. I definitely don't mind talking about it and addressing it.
I'm so humbled and honored to be chosen to represent myself as a black woman to America, and I look at it as such a positive. That's what made me move forward and want to embrace being the first black Bachelorette.
I'm very excited to be partnering with Vaseline because I've been a fan for years. It's products I grew up with - my mom always used them on us - and now, I use it all, from the petroleum jelly to the lip gloss and lotion.
I feel very indebted to my job. I support the loyalty that they've given me - it's very rare, especially in my profession, that you find people who are not just supportive of who you are as a person, but supportive of you finding love and your happiness.
It was actually harder for me to decide if I wanted to move forward as 'The Bachelorette' than it was to decide to be a contestant on 'The Bachelor.' I knew I'd have to ask off work a second time, and I waited until the last minute to talk to my boss about it.
I majored in sports and went to law school and focused in sports law, so I always knew I wanted to do ESPN but thought it would be behind the camera. After doing 'Bachelor' and 'Bachelorette,' the media circuit, I thought, you know what - I want to talk about it!
I'm a trial attorney and I specialize in defense civil litigation. My firm represents businesses and organizations in whatever aspect they get sued, whether it's commercial litigation, to personal injury, liability, contracts, we litigate for them on their behalf.
When you're putting out something that is very whitewashed and doesn't have any type of color in it and you're not trying to be effective and change that... I think that they have to at this point, give us a black Bachelor for season 25. I don't know how you don't.
I'm happy to represent myself as a black woman in front of America and I'm happy for America to rally behind me and see what it's like for me to be on this journey to find love. Honestly, it's not going to be that different from any other season of 'The Bachelorette.'
For 'The Bachelor,' I went through the entire process and was told I was chosen, and then I told my boss... It turned out that my boss was a huge fan of the show, and he was ecstatic. My promise to my firm was that I would do the filming then go back to work, and I did.
I started off as a prosecutor and I would be sitting there, waiting for the defense attorney to come, and they would either bypass me because they would assume that I'm not the attorney or they would assume that I was the legal secretary or a paralegal - never the attorney.
I would say an eyebrow pencil - a brush and pencil, I cannot leave home without that. Definitely concealer, just because of traveling all the time. I use MAC, and the color I use is a mix between NC42 and NC45. I cannot leave home without that because I'm blotchy. Otherwise, I would say mascara.
Especially as a woman, the jury sums you up immediately and is listening to everything you're saying. You have to be on your game all the time, and that prepares you for being in front of the camera. The difference is, when I am in front of a jury, I am not talking about my emotions and my life.
I'm obviously nervous and excited to take on this opportunity but I don't feel added pressure being the first black Bachelorette, because to me I'm just a black woman trying to find love. Yes, I'm doing on this huge stage, but again my journey of love isn't any different just because my skin color is.
Knowing that I was potentially going to be the first black Bachelorette actually held me back from wanting to do it. With the first, there's always so much pressure. And I knew I was going to be new to the audience as a lead for a number of reasons - being over 30, being a career woman, and also being black.
If the National Football League, an organization notoriously known for not standing behind their athletes of color, can come out to make a statement to condemn racism and their systemic oppression and admit they were wrong for not listening in the past, then the 'Bachelor' franchise can most certainly follow suit.
When I was approached to be the 'Bachelorette,' I was like, 'Uh, no. I don't think I can do this again.' It was conversations that I had with people that said, 'I'm so happy to see a Black woman represented well in a franchise, or 'I'm watching this show again because you did it,' that renewed my wanting to be part of this franchise.
I'm actually glad I didn't watch 'The Bachelor' or 'The Bachelorette' prior to being on them. I think if I'd watched them before being a contestant, I would've over-analyzed it or tried to be something else - tried to fit into that world. Because I was so green, I was just me, and I think it was really refreshing to the people watching it.