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" Every time I get a role, or the opportunity to explore a role, I look at it, and I think, 'What is the story we're trying to tell here?' "

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" I was a wild child tomboy. "

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

" It feels good to be a role model for little girls who don't often see natural hair on the red carpet. "

" I really feel like the stars have aligned many ways, many times for me. I have been blessed to play some awesome roles and nuanced and meaningful characters. "

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

" When I looked at 'Dear White People,' you have four African-American students who are all very different and who are trying to figure out who they are. They're dealing with identity issues and crises. That is exciting to me, to see African-American young people on a page, on a screen, who are so diverse and whose stories are all so different. "

" I want to continue to strive towards deepening my relationship with God and finding peace in whatever trials or circumstances I may be given. "

" 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. "

" It only takes one person to mobilize a community and inspire change. Even if you don't feel like you have it in you, it's in you. You have to believe in yourself. People will see your vision and passion and follow you. "

" I think, no matter who you are, at some point in your life you've probably said, 'OK, well, who am I, and where do I fit in?' "

" 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.' "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" I love my 'Survivor's Remorse' cast. They are so funny and crazy, like a big dysfunctional family. It's so much fun, and I love the issues that we talk about on that show. We deal with nuanced and controversial issues, and we do it in a way that's funny. It's comedy. "

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

" When I look at material, I get excited by things that are telling the truth because that's what you want to do: tell somebody else's truth. "

" As black women, we're miles behind our white counterparts in being offered the space to create and craft female characters in major blockbuster films. "

" Generally, when I'm going to a new project, I take my own makeup. I'll explain to them what it is that I would like. If they are receptive, we figure it out together. If they're not, I'll be going to back to my trailer and doing my own makeup. And that's the same for hair. "

" I went straight from filming the second season of 'Survivor's Remorse,' and the creators over there were so supportive in letting me go early so I could film 'Chi-Raq.' And that was an amazing experience. "

" Why aren't there films being made that tell ethnically diverse stories? Or why is it so impossible to allow a person of color to add their texture and their essence to a role that is not ethnically specific? I don't know why it's a novel or risky idea to consider making a film look like how our world actually looks today. "

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

" Whatever it is you do, study it, learn the ins and outs of it, and really work on building your craft. "

" You have to be resilient to be a black person in America. The thing about being resilient is being able to fall apart and pick yourself up again. And putting yourself back together, that improves on what you were before. "

" 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 love period dramas. "

" In working with Nick Cannon, he's such a generous guy, a generous actor, and he was very protective. "

" It's no coincidence that the cities with the highest rates of violence also have the highest rates of unemployment. There are not many opportunities. We have to address that, starting from the government down and the grassroots up. "

" I've had the struggling actor experience. At one point in New York, I was holding four jobs, including bottle service girl, while I was trying to break into acting. "