Quotes from Sonya Deville

I have a theory that confidence comes from self-worth.

I'm an athlete. I'm a performer. Why the hell did I never think of combining the two?

My friend's mom said to me, 'honey, I think you're gay.' And I go, 'yeah, I am.' As soon as someone vocalized it to me, gave me permission. I was like, 'yes, yes, yeah!'

You can be happy with work, you can be happy in other facets of life, but if you're not happy in your personal life, and you're not loving open and honestly, it sucks.

My personal life is a big part of who my character is.

I love every minute of being inside that squared circle.

Acting has been a passion of mine since I was young, I took acting classes through most of high school and years following while training MMA.

I think the ability and the knowledge to be able to defend yourself builds confidence. Also there's great gratification in the sweat and work you get from any combat training.

I love Daniel Bryan. He's such a sweetheart.

It's important to not have my sexuality define me.

I just, I was in such denial within myself for the longest time, just because of the place I grew up in. Like, it wasn't common. I didn't know anybody that was gay. I think I had one gay friend in high school and she never even, like, came out. It was just, like, we all just knew.

I've had tattoos since I was like 16, but if you would have asked the younger me to get a tattoo that symbolized my sexuality, I would have told you no, because that's how not okay I used to be with it.

What attracted me to wrestling was the entertainment factor. I loved watching how into the show the fans get, and also how physical it is.

Spreading the positivity is just as important as telling the difficult stories.

With any minority group, it takes a strong presence in the public eye to make a change because everything nowadays is social media.

Until I came out publicly, I wasn't really living my fullest life. I was trying to be who I thought I was supposed to be, which never turns out good, and I wasn't fulfilled.

Let's just say my phone blew up when I came out on global television. The only people that knew were my immediate family members and my closest friends, maybe like three of them. So you can imagine how many texts and emails and Facebook messages that I got after coming out, most of which were very supportive from the LGBT community.

Equality for all is what we should all want, between race, religion, gender, sexuality... it doesn't matter.

I didn't want it to feel like I was shoving my sexuality down people's throats.

I live for the pressure, I live for the moments when I'm deep in the match, out of breath, hurt and feel like throwing up. It's in those moments that I push through, I keep punching, I keep going forward, because no matter what, I will never stop.

In sports, you deal with disappointment often, but it's how you handle it and come back from it that shapes you. All these lessons are transferable to life and have really helped me with the adversities I've had to deal with in life.

I love being able to share my story to help others relate or cope with their own stuff they have going on at home.

I think no matter what your job title or role in life is, it's important to just take pride in what you do and do it well.

It's not a good feeling to hide a huge part of your life. If you were meant to be somebody else, you'd be somebody else, so don't change who you are.