Quotes About Authenticity

When I was 15, I changed my name legally. I think it was largely due to my struggle about being gay. Everything just didn't fit, and I was trying to find things I could identify myself with, and it started with my name.

Modern fake fur looks so much like real fur that the moment it leaves the atelier, no one can tell it's not the real thing. And I've struggled with that.

I struggled with being in the public eye, losing my anonymity when my star rose quickly in the late 90's. But I need the challenge of showing up and getting up there to spill my guts and connect with my loyal folks.

I struggled coming to terms with the fact that I'd been assigned female at birth, but that I didn't feel like a girl or a woman or a man or a boy.

I always kind of struggled a little bit with being captain sometimes, because sometimes you feel like you have to be someone that you're not.

We have our insides and our outsides, and I find the struggles between the two, as well as the occasions of harmony between the two, fascinating.

As you get older, whatever your struggles may be - how you sound, how you look, how you dress - you grow into yourself a little bit more. You end up realizing the world wants you and not a carbon copy of six other people.

I think my genre is more 'reality rap'; I talk about my life and the struggles that I've been through.

The best way to honor real people when you play them is to try to tell the story of their dynamics and the struggles that they're dealing with rather than lose sight of the connections and personal relationships, and do a really good job at an accent.

Everybody struggles with being an oddball. It's tough trying to fit in when you're a kid; then you become an adult and you think, 'I'm just going to be myself and either they accept it or they don't.' But you know what? I like me, and that's the most important thing.

Who are we? Whom do we want to become? How do we perceive ourselves? How do we want to be perceived? These questions of identity are often at the core of our own internal struggles. Resolve them, and you are closer to being free.

Knowing that being open about my struggles can help people out there with their own lives gives me so much drive to continue to keep living out loud.

One of the biggest struggles I've had is being me.

You're lucky if you find something that makes you feel like yourself; that's the one time that you feel like you know who you are. Most people are struggling to find that out all the time.

It's actually reassuring to see people struggling to do our accent instead of us constantly trying to emulate British or American accents, which we are always asked to do.

There are so many trans kids who are struggling with who they are. I want them to know that one day, they will find the light. No matter what, we have to be who we are. Once you love and accept yourself, then others will slowly do so as well.

The more real and genuine we are about ourselves, the more others will know that there is no shame in struggling, or feeling low, or anxious or having bad days - we all have them.

I don't want to play everyone's best friend. I don't want to play the role of a girl struggling in the ghetto. It's not that that story isn't important, but I saw patterns, and was like, 'I don't relate to these people.'

I'm able to go out there, and I'm really able to be, like, unabashedly myself. And I want somebody who's young, who's struggling, who's not sure if it's OK if they are themselves to know that it's OK.

I'm not handled. I'm not crafted by slick, high-priced consultants. I'm a real person, a genuine person, a struggling person in Connecticut.

I think honest lyrics help somebody say, 'I was struggling with this, but if Jon goes through that, too, and if Jon's telling me that his life isn't as good as it seems on his Instagram,' that helps somebody in their day to day.

I have so many opinions about everything it just comes out during my music. It's a battle for me. I try not to be preachy. That's a real danger.

It's too hard to present an opinion on something that's not true to who you are. It's much easier to base opinions and debates off of fact and your true heart on things. To me that just comes quite naturally, and it's also about being open to what the debate is about and hearing the other side.

Doing 'All Good Things' really felt like I was acting for myself rather than anyone else. It gave me a freedom I'd never had before, or knew I had, to do whatever I want to, and to argue my opinions and not just feel like the cute girl on set or the girl in a boy's club. I figured out how I could be both. And it's been different ever since.