“I’m a bohemian type of person, but to me [American beauty] is being a strong-minded human who makes her own decisions-being able to plan your own life and live to please anyone but yourself.” -Allure

“I was the only African-American girl in my middle school class. I felt like I needed to straighten my hair to fit in. Once I embraced my natural hair, I loved it” -GL

“I love when girls of color don’t relax their hair and go natural. It’s really inspirational because growing up you’re kind of punished to fit the mold.” -GL

“I don’t like it when people think it’s hard for me to see myself as beautiful.” -Glamour

“In the beginning of my career, I handled rejection by personalizing it. For me, people were just cementing what I felt like I already knew about myself: that I wasn’t attractive.” -People 

“If I could tell my 13-year-old self anything, I would tell he that she was enough. I wasted so much time listening to the naysayers. An I just wish I had listened to the other voices of people saying that I was beautiful and talented. I always thought that when you listen to that you were conceited, but I wish I had listened to that more. I wish I has pranced through the world with just hoity-toity confidence and overexuberance.” -People 

“I’m definitely teaching Genesis that beauty is within. I mean, we have got to get past physical beauty, selfies, even though I’ve taken a selfie in my day. But I always say, ‘Genesis, your heart and your head are the two most important parts of you.’ The physical falls away. The things that you can take with you that really are of value have nothing to do with the physical.” -People 

“Not everyone is going to be kind, and not everyone is going to be respectful on social media. Sometimes those comments can get into the psyche, but I am not going to go crazy because of some keyboard warrior somewhere. That doesn’t stop me wanting to be who I am or say what I think or do the things I do.  I workout and I aim for health- I don’t aim to be skinny. I’m over that sort of pressure. I just want to feel good. Yoga helps me de-stress, and meditation has helped me identify things that I need to heal from. That has made me a much happier and more confident person. I’m very proud of my journey, I’m just being myself, and that’s all I can try to do.” People Magazine

“It’s crazy how hard we girls are on ourselves about the way we look. I feel responsibility to my followers to be a role model. I want so badly for them to know their worth as human beings.” GL

“I’ve always felt so funny about my looks. I think that it’s very rare to think that you’re a beautiful person, and so I feel like every other woman- like, I don’t see that when I look in the mirror.”

Cutting, she says now, provided “a physical release of all this intangible pain that’s happening in your heart and in your mind.” But as she read about both science and spirituality, she says, “I was like, ‘This is pointless- my body is my temple,’ and I completely stopped. It seemed literally psychotic after a certain point because I learned to see myself as worthy.” People Magazine

“I was always embarrassed about them (eyebrows) when I was a child, so it’s nice that [the positive response] helps other girls accept theirs. Now I could talk about brows all day. I feel that some days you wake up and you’re having a bad day and you just have to try to remember that it will be all right. It’s a daily mantra. It’s not about trying to be weird. W’re all weird. It’s about being who you are and not trying to be anyone else.”  PEOPLE

“I was always trying to be something that I wasn’t. As I got older, I started to realize that what I was born with is what I should be celebrating.”  Teen Vogue

“As a dark-skinned girl, I have many things that I’ve gone through that I wish more people would have addressed so I wouldn’t have felt so alone. I just want other girls to look up to me in that way. My goal is to break the boundaries and everything a person things a black woman should be. I just want to keep changing the game.”  Teen Vogue

MINNIE DRIVER’s self-assessment is sadly moo-ving

“I was an ugly cow when I was younger.” In Touch

KATE on being mentally bullied

“When I was a teenager, I was very overweight. I was 190 pounds when I was sixteen. And as an actress I wanted to play Alice in Alice in Wonderland … And, so, over the course of a year, I very, very sensibly lost the majority of the weight. I changed the way I thought about food and my body.”  Vogue

In the March 7 issue of US Weekly, Kate said classmates called her Blubber. She has said she was “mentally bullied. “…..I would just sit there and think, ‘Let this make you stronger.’

DREW BARRYMORE on happiness, body image, relationships and more

“I think happiness is a choice. I believe luck is your attitude. It sounds like a really annoying bumper sticker. But there is such a great truth in that. You choose how you want to feel about what happens to you. I could have been a miserable failure. I haven’t had anybody looking over me, and I’ve found my own way through optimistic exploration and fire-burning mistakes. I am a very happy person with an extraordinary life, so I must be doing a lot of things right. I really believe when you peel away the layers, the worlds is a beautiful place filled with beautiful people.”  Elle

In an article in the February 23 issue of People magazine when asked about her life after the house fire and the demise of her marriage to Tom Green, Drew said, “…..All of a sudden I was free to be exactly who I wanted to be rather than who I thought I had to be for anyone else or anything else.”  Did you know that Drew was called “Fatso” by the boys when she was in school? Yes she was. When asked about her wild days of drinking she said, “…..I’d been suffocating myself with trying to be such a good person that I realized I was making myself miserable.” “…..I can feel beautiful on the inside-and I can tell that shows on the outside. It’s amazing to me.”

“Maybe it’s different for every person, but my personal downfall in a relationship is losing a sense of myself, getting too involved in their world and their opinions and their lifestyle. I always have to struggle to be my own person, whether it’s as stupid as what I like to eat for breakfast or as big as how to conduct myself as an individual. What’s saving me in this relationship is the fact that I feel like I’m remaining my own person.” She also said, “…..If we could just admit our faults, at least we could be human. I think what became more important to me was not how other people saw me but how I saw myself. I do run a company. I am consistent at work. My bosses think that I will show up on time, and I’m reliable to them. I can respect myself. That ended up becoming the important journey for me.  And, of course, I’ll always be a bit of a ridiculous clown, ’cause I just can’t help it.” Glamour

“I think that it is so important to believe in yourself and believe in your empowerment and not wait for someone to rescue you and do it for you. That you can go out there and create it all for yourself.”  In The Actor’s Studio

“During my teen years … I was awkward; I had braces; I was overweight. I was always teased. It’s so funny because it’s always those kids who get beaten up in school who end up triumphing. It’s almost like you need that to build character-even though it’s painful to go through it.” Teen People

CHRISTINA RICCI  on feeling ugly

“I got ugly. Throughout my childhood, my favorite [rejection] was: She looks too healthy. They wanted that really gaunt, runaway girl kind of look. I was, like, Mom, I thought you could never be too healthy. She (Christina’s mom) said, “Ignore them.”” Movieline Magazine

“I was really fat for a year. I was ugly. People would come up to me in the street and say, “Weren’t you Wednesday in The Addams Family? God, you’ve gotten so fat. I felt I was a separate person from the person they were talking about, and I’d want to take them aside and scold them: You can’t talk to me like that. Being overweight made it so hard for me to get films. I didn’t work for a year because of it, and it was devastating.” Interview Magazine

“As a teenager, I didn’t like to look in mirrors. I’d put collages and stuff over them; left the lights off in the bathroom. Those are the years when I feel like you hate yourself or love yourself.” Elle Girl

 CAMERON on body image

“When I was growing up, I hated my body, I was extremely, extremely skinny as a child for years I was seventy-nine pounds, and much taller than everyone else.

When I was in junior high, people thought I was sick. They used to call me Skeletor, or Skinny Bones Jones and all those other horrible names”

 Leonardo unpopular? Imagine that!

“I was entirely an unpopular student. I think teenage life is filled with narcissism and giant mood swings that are unnecessary and constantly inflating problems to phenomenally unrealistic proportions.”   GQ

“We all have horrible fears and insecurities that we need to overcome. Mine came from never feeling accepted by any group, never being received. In school I was about a foot shorter than anyone else, always jumping up and getting laughs-a little smart-ass with a big mouth. School was like this wild safari where I could make a name for myself, but it never really worked. They just basically looked at you as the class clown and dismissed you.  I never belonged.  Parade

LIV TYLER on losing weight

 
“…..I’ve been told if I lose weight, I’d have more work, but I refuse to submit [to that]. To the rest of the world I’m slim, and I like the way I am.”  Glamour

“I was not asked at all. I didn’t go to my senior prom. I often danced by myself on the side.

“Growing up I was a string bean-skinny and tall-and I felt self-conscious about that. I worried about how skinny I was, the fact that I had no chest, my frizzy hair. When I started to work in television, makeup artists would point out flaws I’d never even noticed before, and it made me feel even more insecure.”

BEN STILLER wants you to treat each other kindly

“I was pretty insecure [around girls] because I had bad skin. Not really bad skin, but I had pimples. It affected my sense of who I was. It’s such a silly thing when you look back, but at the time, it drove me crazy. …..[High School] can be brutal because of the cliques and the way kids treat each other. But stick it out — it gets better. Things that seem like they mean the world at the moment, you’ll look back on and realize weren’t that important. It sounds like an after — school special, but it’s true.

“I was like any other teenage girl who wanted to be someone I’m not, and that was defined by what boys liked and what images of beauty the media perpetrated. Plus, when I was 7 years old, my ballet teacher said that I didn’t have a dancer’s body. That rang in my head as “I’m not normal; my body is wrong.” It affected me in profound ways. I’m a strong girl, but I’ve always been a believer that when I can’t manage, I surrender. I get myself to a place where someone can help me. I’m prouder of overcoming bulimia than of anything else I’ve done – more than having a number one record or selling out a concert. Celebrate yourself, embrace your struggle, and don’t walk with shame, because nothing is as bad as you probably think it is. When I got through bulimia, I stopped living as a prisoner. Let your body fall into its natural state. Every minute you stay enthralled with a diet or get caught up in how you think you should look, you lose, because you’re not enjoying life.”

“It was a very vulnerable time going from being insecure about my body and who I am to becoming comfortable with me. I had to tune out what the hell everybody else had to say about who I was. When I was able to do that, I felt free.”  Parade

“I wish every woman would love themselves and embrace what they were given naturally. I’ve been fortunate to have the career I want without changing what I look like. If [producers] ever demanded I lose so much weight that I’m not even a remnant of who I am, then hell no, I’m not going to do that. Besides, there’d be a lot of girls out there who wouldn’t be inspired had I not been that girl with a little more weight who carried herself with that self-confidence.”  In Style

“One of the things that struck me at fashion shows is how great these incredibly thin women look in photographs but how in real life it’s too thin. They would be more attractive if they were a little heavier. And I actually don’t think this desire to be rail thin is as pandemic aesthetically as the fashion world presents it to be. I don’t think men prefer women to look like that.”

“The modeling industry goes in and out of different styles and body types that are supposed to be hot at that moment. And right now, it’s not so much the heroin-chic, because the models are looking a little bit healthier to me–and when I say healthy, I don’t even mean body type, I mean just facial pigment and stuff like that. They have blush on their cheeks now again and they look a little healthier. But still such a stick, skinny ideal–which would have worked for me when I was 11 years old because I was 98 pounds and my same height and now I’m 130. So I was really, really thin and insecure. It would have worked well for me to look at that in a magazine and see that that was called beautiful. But the majority of little girls aren’t that way. The majority of them are struggling with their weight and are the opposite way. So I just think it’s important to show different body types and say that they are all beautiful which is not really what they do. When I lost all this weight–I went to an all-black private elementary school–and all the kids used to call me all kinds of horrible names. Then when I went to a mixed junior high school and all of my white friends would be like, ‘Oh my god, you’re so gorgeous. You’re so skinny. ‘By the way, I looked disgusting, I looked sick. But they’d be like ‘You’re so skinny. I wish I could be like you.’ And all my black friends would be like, ‘Girl, eat a pork chop! You are so skinny.’ And the white guys would be like ‘Tyra’s cute’ and the black guys would be like, ‘She’s too skinny. She needs some booty. I don’t want her.’ So it’s so cultural. And it’s sad because women, when it comes to their body types, are ruled by men in their culture. So white women want to be super skinny because that’s what white men seem to be attracted to. And the black guys want more meat.”  GQ

Nora Ephron said, “She (Nicole Kidman) told me that as a teen she was tall and gawky and covered with freckles. She would think, why does this body have to represent me?”   Glamour Magazine

 “I think that we’re all sort of sick of being judged on how we look no matter if we’re too skinny. It seems you can’t be just right anymore. You’re either too fat or too skinny too old or too young too ethnic or too not, you know. You rarely go wow that girl’s just beautiful.”  Today Show

 Salma urges fans to not be impressed with her:

“In my world, you have to be so beautiful, so skinny, so rich, so famous – and I don’t believe you really have to be any of those things. You simply have to be who you are. I do have thighs and a butt. I have cellulite. Don’t be too impressed with me. Don’t try to dress like me or wear your hair like mine. Find your own style. Don’t spend your savings trying to be someone else. You’re not more important, smarter, or prettier because you wear a designer dress. I get them free and I’m too lazy to go out and look for my own. I, a rich girl from Mexico, came here with designer clothes. And one day, when I was starving in an apartment in Los Angeles, I looked at my Chanel blouses and said, “If only I could pay the rent with one of these.”  O magazine

“All that negative energy really drove me toward my passion for acting, so, to all the people who bullied me, thank you!” -GL

“There was bullying-just girls being nasty.” -GL

“I’ve just had so many jerks in my life tell me what I should be doing. ‘This is what a pop star should do, blah blah blah.’ It really helped me signify for myself what I should be doing for me. So I kind of thank all those jerks. It helped solidify who I am.” -People

“Not everyone is going to be kind, and not everyone is going to be respectful on social media. Sometimes those comments can get into the psyche, but I am not going to go crazy because of some keyboard warrior somewhere. That doesn’t stop me wanting to be who I am or say what I think or do the things I do.  I workout and I aim for health- I don’t aim to be skinny. I’m over that sort of pressure. I just want to feel good. Yoga helps me de-stress, and meditation has helped me identify things that I need to heal from. That has made me a much happier and more confident person. I’m very proud of my journey, I’m just being myself, and that’s all I can try to do.” People Magazine

“People didn’t know I was going home at night crying my eyes out because a woman I was looking up to seemed like she was just didn’t want me to be there.”

“Having problems with my teeth, [being] very, very skinny, being bullied at school, I can go on and on.”

“Everywhere you go, kids can be mean.” “In school, classmates openly expressed their opinions about me and made fun of the ‘weird’ way I spoke. Hearing me translate Spanish into English and jumbling phrases into things like ‘house brown’ or ‘car big’ would usually provoke much laughter. After that, I became extremely self-conscious. To this day, I still check myself before I say anything, like, ‘Is this cool to say? Is this going to make me fit in?'” Isabela added, “Embracing my culture. I realized it’s what makes me unique. Embracing who we are is what leads us home.” GL

 “Don’t you just love bullies on line?  Little chickens that have their laptops at home and they hide behind. It used to make me so mad. Now I know they’re the ones that we should feel sorry for.”  The Voice

MARK should have had his HULK skills in High School 🙂

“When I was in high school I had cystic acne and was a little overweight.

People made fun of my last name all the time: Buffalo Breath, Buffalo Fart, Buffalo Lips. It was an ongoing buffalo joke.”

TAYE DIGGS – was called names?

“There was an incident where I was playing softball in gym class, and I went up to bat and the pitcher was a more popular kid in school. As he was pitching, he screamed out to the rest of the players on the field, “Nerd!” three times in a row, as loud as he could.”  Jane

“I was a mean girl. I had a gift for coming up with the meanest possible thing to say in any situation. Well, at my high school — a huge public school in a suburb of Philadelphia — there were a few girls who were kind of “famous.” Everyone knew who they were dating and what parties they went to. They weren’t the prettiest girls or the ones with money. They were just randomly anointed. I was an honor student, and I was in a ton of activities — the newspaper, drama club, the tennis team … My friends and I didn’t really date or go to cool parties, so we made jokes about those who did. To be honest, we felt kind of rejected, and when you don’t feel confident about yourself, you may look for flaws in somebody else to make you feel better. Looking back, I can see the mean-girl thing for what it is: a waste of energy. But that’s not much comfort if you’re the target. The hardest thing is to free yourself from caring what someone says about you. But it brings big freedom if you do it.”

“A woman’s relationship with her father definitely affects how she is in relationships.”  People Magazine

“I love being married [to musician Domino Kirke]- I’m so thankful to not be concerned with trying to intrigue and charm people. Our culture is enmeshed in trying to find a partner. And I think it has a lot less to do with finding the other person than with finding contentment in yourself.” Cosmopolitan Magazine

 Matt’s sage advice to us all

“It’s just better to be yourself than to try to be some version of what you think the other person wants.”  Cosmo Men

DREW BARRYMORE on happiness, body image, relationships and more

“I think happiness is a choice. I believe luck is your attitude. It sounds like a really annoying bumper sticker. But there is such a great truth in that. You choose how you want to feel about what happens to you. I could have been a miserable failure. I haven’t had anybody looking over me, and I’ve found my own way through optimistic exploration and fire-burning mistakes. I am a very happy person with an extraordinary life, so I must be doing a lot of things right. I really believe when you peel away the layers, the worlds is a beautiful place filled with beautiful people.”  Elle

In an article in the February 23 issue of People magazine when asked about her life after the house fire and the demise of her marriage to Tom Green, Drew said, “…..All of a sudden I was free to be exactly who I wanted to be rather than who I thought I had to be for anyone else or anything else.”  Did you know that Drew was called “Fatso” by the boys when she was in school? Yes she was. When asked about her wild days of drinking she said, “…..I’d been suffocating myself with trying to be such a good person that I realized I was making myself miserable.” “…..I can feel beautiful on the inside-and I can tell that shows on the outside. It’s amazing to me.”

“Maybe it’s different for every person, but my personal downfall in a relationship is losing a sense of myself, getting too involved in their world and their opinions and their lifestyle. I always have to struggle to be my own person, whether it’s as stupid as what I like to eat for breakfast or as big as how to conduct myself as an individual. What’s saving me in this relationship is the fact that I feel like I’m remaining my own person.” She also said, “…..If we could just admit our faults, at least we could be human. I think what became more important to me was not how other people saw me but how I saw myself. I do run a company. I am consistent at work. My bosses think that I will show up on time, and I’m reliable to them. I can respect myself. That ended up becoming the important journey for me.  And, of course, I’ll always be a bit of a ridiculous clown, ’cause I just can’t help it.” Glamour

“I think that it is so important to believe in yourself and believe in your empowerment and not wait for someone to rescue you and do it for you. That you can go out there and create it all for yourself.”  In The Actor’s Studio

“During my teen years … I was awkward; I had braces; I was overweight. I was always teased. It’s so funny because it’s always those kids who get beaten up in school who end up triumphing. It’s almost like you need that to build character-even though it’s painful to go through it.” Teen People

JOHN can’t be with anyone who manipulates

“I couldn’t be with someone who uses manipulation to get what she wants. If you need my attention, just tell me. I’ll do the same.

And smoking. If she was trying to quit, that would be okay, but I couldn’t date someone who was oblivious to the fact that it’s a nasty habit.  Cosmopolitan

Brad gives the secret on what girls should do to attract a guy:

“It’s a misconception that a girl has to do something to catch a guy’s attention. It just happens. There are no tricks. In fact, when you have to get tricky, it’s not worth it. You know what makes a guy take notice? If you don’t let him disrespect you. If some guy makes a stupid remark and a girl doesn’t let it get to her because she knows who she is – then she’s won. “

The reporter then asked Brad …What advice would you give teens about resisting peer pressure? He replied: “I’m probably the wrong person to ask. I believe in exploration-but smart exploration, not dangerous. If you’re feeling pressured to try certain things that don’t feel right to you, go with your gut instincts. It’ll never steer you wrong.”  Teen People

 Nelly reveals how a girl can win him over

 “…..Self-conscious people tend to throw things off because when you’re around them, you become uncomfortable, too. You become scared of saying something that might affect their vibe. If someone can laugh at themselves, you know you’re going to be able to get along with them.”  Twist

Jason spills what he likes in a girl:

“A girl’s smile is always going to catch my attention. Every girl has a great smile, so if you just show it, I’ll notice it for for sure. But mostly it’s about being yourself. I don’t like it when girls try to be too funny or overly flirty.”

 “I’m not keen on girls who are too snobby or arrogant-that’s a real turnoff for me. I really like girls who are natural and down to earth.”   TWIST

When asked if he was dating anyone Bruce said, “No. I actually said these words aloud for the first time this year. I’m comfortable being alone. I’m comfortable being single. I may fall in love again, but-for those kids who are listening to Bruce Willis for love advice – any relationship that isn’t founded on friendship is just doomed.” People

“I focused on my work, my family, my friends. And I found myself being a lot happier. I made so many memories that week. I listened to music. In the car, instead of looking at my phone, I would look out the window. Just little things that you miss out on when you’re glued to social media.” -GL

“There was bullying-just girls being nasty.” -GL

“Kids my age like to grow up very fast, but I actually didn’t want to turn 13.” -GL

“I was really shy when  I was little. We moved around, there was a divorce. I had total abandonment issues.” -People

“A healthy amount of fear is a good thing. Let it drive you.” -Glamour

“I empower her to understand that she has to count it all as joy. Even her mistakes, her failures, her triumphs, what she looks like, all of it. That’s all a part of her loving herself, even if none of those things change. So I just tell her she’s worth it. Even if I am combing her hair, and she’s crying… she does not have to be a perfect little girl. There’s no such thing. It’s okay to be vulnerable, and there’s strength in vulnerability.” -People 

“When I was a young scrappy girl growing up, I realized we were poor. But I was making my way through it. You either hope or you don’t. And it was hope and dreams that made me put my feet to the floor every morning and just approach every day with a sense of enthusiasm. It was my fight or flight that kicked in.” -People 

“I always feel like I have to go back and heal that little girl who grew up in poverty, who was called names and ‘ugly’ all the time. Until someone told me, “Maybe you need to let the little girl heal you at 54. Maybe you need to allow the little girl to be excited at the 54-year-old she gets to become.” Because actually, she did pretty good. She was a survivor. She got out of it. And it makes me look at my past completely differently when I see that.” -People 

“I came into this world with anxiety, I used to hold my breath from anxiety when I was a baby and it would make me faint. There are times when it is debilitating, and there are times when it makes me laugh. But I actually feel like my superpower is my anxiety. It’s one of my key motivators, and it’s at the center of my ambition.” -Cosmopolitan

“I don’t like to talk about negative things unless I can bring light to it in some way,” Summer says, “Life is too short to get caught up in negativity.” GL

Cutting, she says now, provided “a physical release of all this intangible pain that’s happening in your heart and in your mind.” But as she read about both science and spirituality, she says, “I was like, ‘This is pointless- my body is my temple,’ and I completely stopped. It seemed literally psychotic after a certain point because I learned to see myself as worthy.” People Magazine

“Everything can be overcome with love.”  People Magazine

“As stars, we put ourselves out there and act like everything is good, everything is perfect, but we all have wounds in our life. I want people to know that we all go through stuff. And we all need support and help.”  People Magazine

“I won’t let anyone tell my son not to cry. I don’t want anything to interfere with his expressing what he’s feeling. As a kid I was told to shush, and as a result it’s taken me a lifetime to be able to speak. I had to hide it – you hammer it down until you can’t think anymore, you can’t speak anymore, and your inner world is in retreat. You can’t function, and you stutter, which I did as a boy. You will stutter not only vocally, but inwardly. You will hesitate, you will fumble, you will futz, and you will deny the truth because the truth is too difficult to handle. It’s hard to select which situations to run away from once you become a runner, so you hide from everything.”

“When I was a young scrappy girl growing up, I realized we were poor. But I was making my way through it. You either hope or you don’t. And it was hope and dreams that made me put my feet to the floor every morning and just approach every day with a sense of enthusiasm. It was my fight or flight that kicked in.” -People 

“I always feel like I have to go back and heal that little girl who grew up in poverty, who was called names and ‘ugly’ all the time. Until someone told me, “Maybe you need to let the little girl heal you at 54. Maybe you need to allow the little girl to be excited at the 54-year-old she gets to become.” Because actually, she did pretty good. She was a survivor. She got out of it. And it makes me look at my past completely differently when I see that.” -People 

“I’m just a girl from a trailor park who had a dream.” 2005 Academy Awards acceptance speech

“There are things about my childhood that I regret, that my mom regrets, that my dad regrets, and I think that my brother regrets, which is that my parents were so troubled in their relationship that we were kind of neglected at times. The other side of my childhood so overshadows that, though, that it’s not something I tend to bring up. Ultimately, my parents did the best they could. A lot of people hold on to something not being the way they think it should’ve been, and they’re messed up because of it. And what’s sad about that is that life will be over for your parents one day, and you can be left with what you could have made of the relationship, but didn’t. My dad wasn’t in my life very much when I was growing up, but I decided that I didn’t want his life to be over and for me to say, “Oh, if I’d only grown up I could’ve had an adult relationship with him.” I’m so glad I have my dad in my life right now. Interview

“One of the first producers I worked with told me I had a horrible forehead and my lips were too big.”  US Weekly

“My whole life, I didn’t understand my own gender and sexuality. I always hated the word ‘bisexual’ … I don’t ever think about someone being a boy or being a girl” PEOPLE

“My mom is a girl from New York, and my dad is a strong, sturdy Dutchman. I grew up with dual citizenship, and I still don’t have a grasp on American beauty standards. It used to be about having blonde hair, blue eyes, skinny-girl stuff, but now it’s like if you are true to yourself and an individual, you’re beautiful. As a girl who’s happiest in an oversize T-shirt and seawater in my hair, I’m pleased with that.” -Allure

“American beauty for me is very much about that transformation from something you are into something you dream of being. Hollywood invented the movie star, which takes a person from normalcy and makes them into something extraordinary. You take whatever ingredients you have and make what you want to be.” -Allure

“I’m a bohemian type of person, but to me [American beauty] is being a strong-minded human who makes her own decisions-being able to plan your own life and live to please anyone but yourself.” -Allure

“Growing up, I was taught that if I saw something that wasn’t right, I had to do something, say something, and not censor myself.” -Glamour

“It’s about being open to asking the tough questions, having the courage to implement changes and putting your privilege on the line.”

“To remind students every day they are worthy, that they are beautiful.” -People

“You can always put on a pretty dress, but it doesn’t matter what you wear on the outside if your mind isn’t strong enough. There is nothing more attractive-you might even say enchanting-than a woman with an independent will and her own opinions.” -Elle 

“Who we are meant to be in life is something we all have to work out for ourselves. I think we can often go offtrack as women, because our instinct is to nurture or to adjust ourselves to society’s expectations. It can be hard to take the time to ask ourselves who we truly want to be- not what we think people will approve of or accept, but who we really are. But when you listen to yourself, you can make the choice to step forward and learn and change.” -Elle 

“In the beginning of my career, I handled rejection by personalizing it. For me, people were just cementing what I felt like I already knew about myself: that I wasn’t attractive.” -People 

“If I could tell my 13-year-old self anything, I would tell he that she was enough. I wasted so much time listening to the naysayers. An I just wish I had listened to the other voices of people saying that I was beautiful and talented. I always thought that when you listen to that you were conceited, but I wish I had listened to that more. I wish I has pranced through the world with just hoity-toity confidence and overexuberance.” -People 

“I’m definitely teaching Genesis that beauty is within. I mean, we have got to get past physical beauty, selfies, even though I’ve taken a selfie in my day. But I always say, ‘Genesis, your heart and your head are the two most important parts of you.’ The physical falls away. The things that you can take with you that really are of value have nothing to do with the physical.” -People 

“I came into this world with anxiety, I used to hold my breath from anxiety when I was a baby and it would make me faint. There are times when it is debilitating, and there are times when it makes me laugh. But I actually feel like my superpower is my anxiety. It’s one of my key motivators, and it’s at the center of my ambition.” -Cosmopolitan

“Your head is telling you lies, don’t believe them, you know the truth-and you’re beautiful, from the inside out. And the inside is actually what matters most.” -People

“You learn more from failing than you do from succeeding. It’s important to befriend failure; it’s not pleasant, and it’s painful, but it’s necessary to grow. I wish everyone a manageable failure at one point in life. You learn about grit and how to pull yourself out of a tough situation. Then, hopefully, you get things that are good.” -AARP

When asked if she read about herself on the internet Ellen said, “Never. Never have. I don’t see any good or bad whatever people say about me. There’s a phrase, ‘What you think of me is none of my business.’ And I really feel like that. If I’m going to buy into ‘People Love me!’ then I have to buy into ‘”People hate me!’ So I just have to like myself and not care what people think. Usually if they don’t lie you, it has nothing to do with you.”

“I cry easily. I think it’s important to have lots of different emotions. You have to feel every bit of it, or else you are missing out.”  PEOPLE

“I gave up on being nice. I stared putting more value on other qualities instead: passion, bravery, intelligence, practicality, humor, patience, fairness, sensitivity. Those last three might seem like they are covered by “nice,” but make no mistake, they are not. A person who smiles a lot and remembers everyone’s birthday can turn out to be undercover crazy, a compulsive thief, and boring to boot. I don’t put a lot of stock in nice. I’d prefer to be around people who have any of the above qualities over “niceness,” and I’d prefer it if that applied to me, too. I’m also okay if the most accurate description of me is salty. But a least I know what I want to strive for.:”  PEOPLE

“When I was a teenager I was so ready to grow up. Anything that was mainstream didn’t interest me, and now I want to see all of the Twilight movies and feel like I’m a kid again. Even as an adult, I’m insecure about so many things, and you have to do what feels good to you in the moment.”  “Teen Vogue

DANE COOK on the little friend in his pocket

“I couldn’t get a date to the prom. Now I change my name when I check into hotels.

I used to go by Zang Kudrow who was an action figure I kept in my pocket when I felt shy at school. I knew he was in there, like my buddy.” In Style

 Angelina on how to feel beautiful and strong

 “I’ve often felt unattractive or different looking. As I’ve grown up, I’ve felt more comfortable in my own skin. It may sound cliche, but when you feel beautiful and strong on the inside, it shows on the outside.” Teen People

“I hated my whole childhood, hated it, hated it, hated it. There was no place for me. I was not accepted here. I was noticeably different. I was awkward. I was in the wrong clothes. I would get the sh_t kicked out of me constantly. My mother would be like, ‘That’s ridiculous. Why would anyone do that?’ I’m coming home with my hair a mess, crying. Finally a guidance counselor came to my house and said, ‘We have a problem. They are picking on her, and I don’t know what to do about it.’ And I was so angry at my mother. She was like, ‘Obviously something you are doing.’ … I’m so thankful for it now because it definitely gives you the empathetic view of humanity.” Vogue

“Realizing that conforming didn’t accomplish anything. I was so preppy-everything was monogrammed and everything had to match. It was such a stress. Being popular was so much work! Do your own thing. As long as you learn that, you’re cool.”  Teen People

MELISA ETHERIDGE reveals what she’s glad she learned to let go

“Fear. And the sense that I am not good enough-not good enough for my partner, my career, my kids. Before, I needed to make everybody else feel good, so nobody would look at me. I’d take on everybody’s problems and make their life happy, so they didn’t see I wasn’t good enough. Now I can go to a photo shoot with 70 zillion people, and I don’t have to make them think I’m the greatest. I can just be myself and trust that I’m okay.”  Life

Phylicia says STOP looking for approval

“Don’t be preoccupied with looking for approval from other people. You’re never going to be anybody but who you are. And who you are is greater than you imagine. The way that you think creates our reality. It’s very powerful. I would say to a young girl who is feeling insecure about her looks to stop. Who you are is not the way you look; who you are is who you are on the inside. And there is not a mirror in the world that can show you that. It is beautiful, it is amazing, it is awesome.’  Oprah Show

MADONNA has fears too:

“Oh sure, I’ve got lots of fears. My job is to conquer my fears. The irony of being a performer is that I have huge insecurities. People are shocked to hear that I think my legs are fat or I don’t like the way I look. We all have insecurities. We’d be lying if we said we didn’t. I’m so not the Material Girl now. There were many years when I thought fame, fortune, and public approval would bring me happiness. But one day you wake up and realize they don’t. Each of us is responsible for everything that happens in our lives. When good things happen — we win an award, meet the love of our lives, or get a promotion – we take ownership of that. But when bad things happen-we get fired or we divorce-we often don’t take responsibility. We call it something that just happened. I now understand that just as we can draw the positive, we can draw the negative.”

When asked what she knew for sure, Madonna said, “That there are no mistakes or accidents. That consciousness is everything and that all things begin with a thought. That we are responsible for our own fate, we reap what we sow, we get what we give, we pull in what we put out.” O Magazine

SALEISHA wants you to be who you are

“My freshman year I went through a phase when I would think some girl was much prettier than me. Like, she’s skinnier, she’s taller, she has prettier eyes.  I didn’t hate myself, but I didn’t feel that I was pretty. But at the end of the day, you can’t change who you are. You can’t go to sleep at night and wake up tomorrow perfectly beautiful. You just have to give what you got, and if [the world] doesn’t want it, then they can leave it. Seventeen

  Eminem on judging people:

“…you gotta learn to judge people for the individuals that they are.”  Cosmo Girl

 Julianna on imperfections:

“I think imperfections are important, just as mistakes are important. You only get to be good by making mistakes, and you only get to be real by being imperfect.”  Glamour

“I’m the girl who everyone said was never going anywhere. I guess I shocked a few people, but deep down I don’t feel like I’m there yet either.

I’m still just going day to day. I’m just doing my thing.”  Chicago Sun-Times

 Sally talks about her low-self-esteem:

“Many people must have looked at my life and thought I was quite fortunate. But I felt lousy about myself–and as you now know, I didn’t come from a place where I had a lot of self-confidence. In my late 50s I began to embrace myself in a way that I hadn’t been able to before. I find that I’m not as worried anymore about what other people think. That’s a comfortable place to be. And I’m starting to let go of the feeling that I need to push myself to do things. I don’t want to do–an impulse that has always been linked to the feeling that I’m not enough. If you’re busy thinking, Gosh, I’m not pretty or smart enough, your spirit is undernourished. The minute you tell yourself, I’m never going to feel those things again, you stop growing because you’re too busy armoring yourself.”  O Magazine