Quotes from Sonya Deville

My goal in talking about my sexuality publicly is just so that a scared little girl or little boy can see me do it and think, 'wow, if she did it, then maybe it's OK that I do it.' It's to encourage people to be themselves.

I don't want it to be Sonya Deville, the gay wrestler. I want it to be Sonya Deville, the awesome performer who happens to be gay.

It's insane how many fans I have from the LGBTQ+ community. I would say the majority of my fanbase are young, gay women.

I want the women's division to have that legitimacy, I want it to have that intensity and the aggressiveness, and I feel like that's where I personally can contribute.

I am an entertainer and I am an athlete, and WWE is the biggest performance-based show in the world.

Even prior to WWE, when I was bartending and training MMA, I always had a sense of fulfillment because although not my dream job, I took pride in being the best bartender I could be.

I really want to utilize my MMA knowledge in my WWE performance.

My MMA background, I think, only enhances my experience on 'Tough Enough' or in the WWE in general.

You can call WWE whatever you want, but at the end of the day, it's a fight and fighting is my specialty.

Being a part of the WWE, I am blessed to have a platform both on social media and TV, with that platform I am able to spread my message and share my story.

I think WWE superstars and Divas are here to change lives. That's why they do what they do. They want to make an impact on the world.

A good friend of mine, Maria Menounos, she's kind of like a mentor to me. She dabbled in WWE and pro wrestling, and she said 'This is the perfect opportunity for you.' Once I started doing my research about the competition and the company, I fell in love with WWE even more.

My first time being inside the Performance Center was for the WWE Tough Enough tryouts, and although I knew hardly anything about sports-entertainment, I knew I wanted to be a part of this place.

Being a part of the LGBTQ community myself, it's another passion of mine to let my fan base know that I represent another demographic in the WWE.

I do feel pressure, but I put it on myself because I want to represent the LGBTQ community in a place where they've never really been represented that much, being the WWE and professional wrestling in general.

I've never dealt with really anything negative in the WWE as a whole, in the locker room, anything.

I'm the first-ever openly gay female in the WWE.

I started training at a local gym in New Jersey, and the day of my high school graduation, I packed up everything in my car and moved to Coconut Creek, Florida, where I trained with one of the best gyms in the world, American Top Team.

I'm a very passionate person. I'm Italian, it's in my blood so when I care about something, I get emotional.

I realized - and I think I learned this at a young age - that anything that's worth anything, you're going to take a risk to get there and it's not going to be easy.

Sonya is the way she is for a reason and I love enlightening the fans on what those things are because so many people are going through similar experiences and have amazing stories I love to hear and relate to myself.

I had so much fun in the 'Tough Enough' barracks.

Don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed. Don't ever apologize for your sexuality. Just be you.

Everyone has contributed to the Women's Evolution in their own way, and I hope that my message can just be it's okay to not look like the rest, it's okay to not fit in, it's okay to be yourself and be different.