Because I have been bullied and attacked about my body, body image has always been an issue for me.

I've always pushed my body way too hard, gone days without eating at 20,000 feet, and caught every exotic bug that didn't kill me.

Acting coaches in Hollywood were always telling me to use my hands and body more. But that was never me. I just breathe and sometimes it doesn't look as if I'm doing that.

My father taught me things about body language that psychologists have been catching up with ever since. He always knew when I was lying, because my posture was all wrong.

I thought I was pretty average height. And then it just clicked to me - 'Yo, you're undersized.' I guess when I got older and my body started hurting, I'm like, 'I'm not as big as I thought I was.' So I always played with the mentality that I was bigger than I actually was.

While designing, sewing and cutting patterns for clients, my mother was always telling me to make sure the upper part of the body was balanced with the lower part, an A-line skirt to minimize hips or shoulder pads if a client was smaller on top. I was training my eye to create balance.

I would do musicals in high school where there was dancing, and I would sing my verse, and then they would choreograph it so when I would take an eight-count to back up to the back of the stage while the other dancers covered me up because my body was totally... I was always in newborn-deer mode.

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