I just feel really grateful that I can pursue my dreams and also reach people in ways that I never expected.
It can be very hard to find clothing for different body shapes. After all, there are only, what, five companies for plus-size women?
Just because we're a bit curvier doesn't mean we don't want to look great.
Until you love yourself, until you really believe that, you're stopped in your tracks. That's why it's so important to wear what you want to wear and be who you want to be.
I wanted to entertain and make people laugh. I think it really hit in third grade, but once I was in high school, I joined chamber choir. I wanted to do musical theater, too, but they had rehearsals at the same time. That was a bit of 'Sophie's Choice.'
I have no shame when it comes to making people laugh. I don't care what I look like.
I wanted to be the female Jim Carrey.
I was born in Homestead, Florida.
My parents divorced when I was eight; I never really knew my dad, and my mom raised my older sister and brother and me alone. It was challenging.
I was always the class clown, and I think I gravitated toward performing for the attention I didn't always think I was getting at home.
I realized that... at the core of who we are, we're these perfect beings - and we're not taught that.
It's very strange. I can't go anywhere without somebody stopping me, which is so cool that I get to connect to people that I never might've ever spoken to, or they have an impetus to speak to me. It's created a career that I wasn't sure if I'd ever really have.
I think that my whole journey had been getting to the place where I can accept myself for who I am, to be the woman that I'm meant to be, but you have to get there first.
I remember being a kid and always feeling a little different than all my friends.
I taught preschool previously, so I was like, 'Oh, I can teach little kids to act, and I can go back home.'
I'm ready to encourage and support people on their journey because I've been encouraged and supported. I just hope I make people proud.
I have been able to help my friends and people that I believe in pay their bills and stay afloat in L.A. while following their dreams.
I am of the thinking that everything happens as it should and when it should.
I kept auditioning, with no savings and no money, credit card debt gaining interest. I went on unemployment. I bought ramen noodles at dollar stores. I never had to - God forbid - live on the streets.
I moved in with a roommate who told me, 'Stay with me until you can afford rent. Don't give up.' People who supported me were like, 'If you don't have money for food, I'll cook you dinner. You don't have money for acting class? Let's get together and read lines.'
