Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" Ever since I was maybe nine or 10 years old, I'd say, 'I'm gonna be an actor, and I'm gonna go to Julliard, and I'm gonna be in movies.' My parents never said, 'What's your backup plan?' "

Related Quotes:

" I had been getting relaxers since I was eight or nine. I had no clue. It was a personal mission to really find out who am when I'm not altering myself to look like anybody else. Who am I when I wake up and I don't do anything to my hair? Who is that woman? I want to meet her. And that was what catapulted my journey into going natural. "

Teyonah Parris

Journey

Wake Up

Woman

" It was not hard for me to find guidance and motivation. I'm very blessed, and my parents were always so supportive of myself and my brother. Whatever you wanted to do, you just had to give 110 percent. So whatever that was, they supported it. "

" When you have filmmakers like Justin Simien, writers, producers, actresses like Lena Waithe, who are people of color, they're creating their own content and saying, 'You know what? We're not going to wait on someone else to tell our story. We're going to do it ourselves. You can be a part of it or not.' "

" You look at 'Survivor's Remorse.' Or 'Blackish.' Or Issa Rae's brilliant, funny 'Insecure,' which started out on YouTube but is now on HBO. And you see multifaceted representations of the African-American experience. It's insanely exciting. "

" I love period dramas. "

" When they asked, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' I said, 'I want to be a model and an actress.' They said, 'Why?' I said, 'Because I can look good and get paid to do it.' That's the kind of kid I was. "

" I went to this arts high school in Greenville, S.C. In speech class, the teacher, a white man, would say, 'You're talking ghetto. Don't talk ghetto.' I'm not only offended, but I'm confused because while there's nothing wrong with people who come from the projects or the ghetto, that's actually not my experience. "

" I think people need to watch 'Chi-Raq' because you need to know what's happening in your back yard. "

" You have to really understand and appreciate who are you are and know who you are and what you have to offer people - not just a man but people! This helps you have something to stand on. Know your value and what makes you valuable so you can always go back to this. "

" I've wanted to be an actress my whole life, and the - none of the women I aspired to be like had natural hair. "

Teyonah Parris

Wanted

Hair

" The person that inspired me throughout most of my childhood was Angela Bassett. "

" In my junior year of high school, I went to a boarding school for the arts: a school called the Governor's School for The Arts and Humanities. It was basically a mini-Juilliard - an intense training conservatory for the arts. "

" I don't even watch basketball. I can't even pretend. "

" I think social media is a slippery slope because while you're projecting something out to people, they also project back onto you what they want to see. "

" An actor hears 'no' more often than the average person. A black human and a black woman on top of that? That's a lot of no's. "

" My dad, bless his heart, always told me I was beautiful, so I was never self-conscious in that way. But when you look at the images on TV, you think you need to look like that in order to be sexy. "

Teyonah Parris

Heart

Sexy

" When you get into this industry and the restrictions placed on women, first, and then on women on color, next? Yeah, this business comes with its challenges. But I do not shy away from those challenges. "

" As a girl, I remember looking up to pop singers, and they all had long, straight weaves and light skin. And I thought, 'That's what I have to look like if I'm going to be fierce and sexy and all those things.' "

" It's so important... to have a variety of representation on television. "

" I'm like any other girl: I see the Instagram posts and the Tumblr stuff. I'm inspired by what my fellow girls are doing. "

Teyonah Parris

I See

See

" I try to be very particular about the roles I choose and what they say and put into the universe. I try to do my part. "

" I always want to tell the truth. It doesn't have to be a pretty truth, and it doesn't have to be a life-changing and life-threatening truth like 'Chi-Raq.' But I want to tell someone's truth in an effort to inspire people to see themselves reflected on the screen. "

" A show like 'Orange Is the New Black' has every race and ethnicity - and you don't even have to depend on four networks any more. You can go to Amazon or Netflix and be in an award-winning show. "

" When you just come into a show that's already established, you feel that they're family, and they have a way of doing things and running things. "

" I'm influenced by many things. Simply turning on the television, I feel inundated with images and messages to be a certain way. So I try to limit my influences by being aware of what I allow into my environment. I'm always conscious of what's trying to creep into my subconscious. "

" When you get older, you start to doubt, and you put limitations on yourself. But little Teyonah had no fear. "

" Working with Spike Lee was a dream of mine. It was amazing to be able to collaborate with such a visionary. "

" Every time I see my friends on a billboard, I'm so excited. If God can do it for me or them, he can do it for everybody. "

Teyonah Parris

God

I See

" It's important, as a young person of color, to see yourself reflected in the media. "

" I got my first relaxer when I was nine years old. This was in the '90s, and I convinced my mom to let me perm my hair so I could wear a French roll with the crimps in the front. "