Quotes About Self-expression

I am surprised by how not-adopted the video reply has been. What keeps other people from doing it, I think, is that they think a video comes across as 'I'm cool, look at how many e-mails I get.' That perception doesn't scare me, because I know who I am.

I think it's absolutely possible for any woman to use the moves I do with Lady Gaga. Just put on her 'Born This Way' video or turn on one of her songs, spend 20 minutes and get a routine down just by watching our choreography. You'll start to see a difference in your abs, legs and butt. Anyone can get great results from this.

I like having black hair. When I was really young, I wanted to be Asian - Asian hair is beautiful. I also wanted to look like the girl in George Michael's 'Father Figure' video.

If you consider the definition of authenticity, it's saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic.

Obviously I know if you're putting yourself out there, saying, 'Hey! Listen to my music!,' with pictures of yourself in the magazines, then people are going to judge you. 'I hate her music. I hate her hair. I hate her production. I hate her videos.' Fine: don't care. That's the great thing about art: it's not for everyone.

We get to wear a lot of pretty and fancy clothes for our performances and videos, so in my daily life, I like to be really comfortable.

I'm just me, all the time. People think, 'She must be an innocent little white girl when she's not performing or making videos.' But no, I'm me all year round, 24/7.

Oftentimes people say to me, 'Oh I didn't know you could do so much with locs until I saw your videos or I saw photos of you at events.' So whenever I hear that people have been really inspired to experiment with their hair or their look because of me, it's very flattering and really cool.

I'm not a model, I'm an artist. In one of my videos, I'm doing this shot of me with no make-up on where I've just woken up, and I don't think a lot of people would be comfortable enough to do that. But that's the way I look. This is who I am. Let's enjoy it. Let's just live life to the full while we're all here.

I don't really have hobbies. I paint. I write. I direct videos. I take photos. I'm a creative person. A normal day for me is doing all of those things. Sometimes I stay up until 5 A.M. writing a song because I make music. It's the same with writing.

My videos represent the artist in me very well, but not the kind of woman I am.

I think half the battle is just being comfortable in front of the camera - and I already am, doing so many videos and interviews, so then it just takes that extra step of trying to get into character.

I always thought I'd look corny in the type of rap video in the club with girls and all that type of stuff. I just didn't think I could really pull that off. We always think it's more fun and better just to go outside the box and to use our videos to show cool concepts.

Instagram is just a way of showing the world a little piece of what you're like. You're not really giving everything away - it's not like you're making videos every second; you're just giving a little picture of what's happening in your life. No one can really completely figure it out.

When I do videos, it's just myself.

I was cast in commercials, music videos, and booked a lot of modeling jobs. But my acting career never took off because I was holding myself back. I was acting across from male partners who didn't know that I am trans. I was being taught by teachers who didn't know.

I always do my own makeup, hair, and styling, including in videos and on, like, album covers.

I never really set out to have people see my videos.

I started doing videos in high school with my friends. I was very popular. I did my own kind of little reality show - mainly, my videos were about beauty and very gossipy in nature.

My videos are a one-woman show - it's just me. I have my camera in front of me, and underneath my camera, I have a monitor. That's where I see everything.

I think kind of what you see in the videos is true to me, if not maybe a slightly heightened version of my real self.

I'm going to be writing and directing my own videos, and performing in them too, and I'm super-excited about it.

To be honest, my videos are for myself. I didn't look at social media as a vehicle for my comeback.

Whenever I see a camera, I just want to perform for some reason. If I was getting paid for it or not, I would still be posting random videos of me on the Internet.