I dress like a tomboy.
I'm not the sexy girl. I'm more youthful and innocent, the girl who wears jeans and T-shirts and sneakers. But fans have accepted that I'm a tomboy. There's a different group of people who find that attractive.
Everything I was told should be my greatest insecurities and weaknesses, everything that I've been labeled - short, nerdy, skinny, weak, impulsive, ugly, tomboy, poor, rebel, loud, freak, crazy - turned out to be my greatest strengths. I didn't become successful in spite of them. I became successful because of them.
It wasn't cool that I didn't comb my hair and had books and wore glasses. It was never cool be a nerd and tomboy, and these days, it really is. And I'm like, 'You guys have no idea what I went through.' How many times my mother yelled at me to comb my hair.
I was thin and didn't realize how small I was - I was, like, 96 pounds when I got signed. You don't want to be 96 pounds. It's not attractive. I didn't know how to do my hair and makeup. I was such a tomboy.
I used to have seven dogs; now I have a more manageable four. I was in Cornwall, and one dog got swept away downstream, so my cousin dived in to get it, then her dog dived in. So I jumped in to rescue hers. Those dogs are my calm. That's how I cope with the business - I get the sanity on my woodland dog walks, being a tomboy.
I was the biggest tomboy growing up. Now I love playing with a full face of makeup.
Well, because I'm naturally a tomboy, when I have sleepovers with girls, they end up going home and crying.
Aaliyah revolutionized what it was to be a young black woman in America. She made it OK to be a nerd and to be a tomboy. She made it OK to wear leather and chains. She was the first black girl with an ombre. She was so far ahead of everything and everyone. It was just who she was. She was an innovator, but she didn't even realize it.
I was raised with three bothers, no sisters. I've always been a tomboy.
