Quotes from Camila Mendes

I rewatched 'The O.C.,' like, seven times!

It's fine to eat dessert when I want to eat dessert because that will give me the peace of mind I need. I'll know that if I ate chocolate cake, maybe I won't the next day.

People know what I look like. I take photos on my own, and I don't edit them, so people know.

I grew up watching 'Gossip Girl' and 'The O.C.,' and I looked up to Blair Waldorf and Summer Roberts.

I spent a lot of my adolescence in Miami, where it was super humid, and my hair would get super frizzy, and my waves weren't really consistent or pretty.

Invest in a trainer. You see the progress so quickly, and you push yourself in new ways.

I'm not more Brazilian than I am American or vice-versa - I'm very much a combination of all of those things.

I like communicating and being open and committing. That, for me, has always been something that I like to do.

I think from going to fittings once a week and having to look in the mirror for two hours, I feel like I built a intuition for what's gonna work and what isn't, and I noticed how important tailoring is, especially being a more petite body type.

I've always looked up to Nicole Kidman. I think she's an elegant and talented actress. You can tell how much she commits to her characters, and I admire that.

Vancouver is more laid-back, pretty much what you would expect from a West Coast city. Miami is definitely livelier - the nightlife, the people, everything. It's basically a little slice of Latin America.

I connect with my culture through my family. I speak Portuguese to my parents so that I can practice. I stay engaged with my extended family through a lively group chat on WhatsApp. That sense of community and family is the heart of Brazilian culture, and staying engaged with my family is what keeps me connected.

Everyone's bodies are different, and we all have different shapes, but it has nothing to do with who you are.

I often hear things like, 'You don't look Latina enough,' and that mentality is so backwards. The fact is, I am Latina, so how are you going to tell me that I don't look Latina?

I have so much appreciation for how those two cultures have created who I am. I'm a full-blooded Brazilian, with an entire extended family of Brazilians, but I was born and raised in the U.S.

I'm a Brazilian - full blood, parents born and raised, and I lived there for a little bit - but I didn't grow up there.

A good listener goes a long way.

It was tragic every single time my mom told me we were moving. I would always envy my friends who had grown up in the same house their entire life, and they had markings on the wall of 'me at five years old' and all that. It made me so sad. I wished I'd had that.

If you're going to become a better person, do it in high school.

Miami can be super-kitschy at times, and it's fun to embrace that.

I feel like I know I have enough friends who support me through those times. Like, I'll call a friend and be like, 'I really don't feel good about what I ate today,' and she'll be like, 'Dude, it's fine.'

If I could go back to before I started 'Riverdale,' I would tell myself to speak up when I felt like something wasn't right - to use my voice and know that it's worth hearing.

It took living alone for me to really get to know myself.

I use my hair as a tool for portraying characters. When I'm auditioning for a role, when I'm putting myself on tape for something, I always consider what the hairstyle is going to be because it changes the way people perceive me.