The truth is, we all face hardships of some kind, and you never know the struggles a person is going through. Behind every smile, there's a story of a personal struggle.
The loss of my father will always sting. But now, everything that I do is in honor of him and celebrates his life.
Whether we are working to pay off student loans, credit card debt, paying for elder or childcare, or even trying to save for retirement, the idea of the American dream still remains just that - a dream.
We define family in many different ways: not just by blood but by people with whom we find a common ground and a common bond.
I learned that, with grief, you have to take it one day at a time and learn how to find the happiness amid the heartbreak.
If I could eat French fries every day of my life, I would.
We think of our prison inmates as the dregs of society, and we scorn them and push them off to the side and forget about them. We have to remember that they are humans, and they have rights, and yes, they did wrong, but we all have one shot at doing wrong, you know?
I didn't lose weight for my career or a relationship - I did it to be happy and, as Oprah says, to live my best life.
Food is a reflection of who you are as a person.
I connected to this idea of faith and spirituality and religion and Christianity being a very strong crux of who I am at the core and how a lot of what we think and believe is based around our spiritual beliefs.
I love 'Game of Thrones.'
I am imperfect. I am funny. I am real.
Growing up, there was this explosion of B television. 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air,' you have 'Family Matters,' 'A Different World.' I had examples - of black children, black families, black women, black men - that represented who I was.
I remember going through that process of growing my hair out, straightening it, cutting off the relaxed hair. I finally got to a point where I went to the Dominicans because they can straighten it real good. By the end of the day, the part of my hair that had just been pressed straight was already starting to coil back up.
I've learned that we all have an ugly side.
You think of a criminal, and you already judge them for the crime, and you don't really see the human side of them. We all have our sides that we're not proud about.
It's not about trying to be perfect. It's not about trying to walk the straight and narrow. It's about loving who you are and finding those people who love and accept you for who you are.
I was raised in a very religious household - it wasn't dogma, but we were raised Christian; we went to church every Sunday, Bible study, Bible camp every summer.
I grew up in Nashville, born and raised. I'm a country girl, and I love country music. I had a dream I was going to be the first black female country music star, but then that wasn't the case.
One of my secret nerdy things is that I love education.
