Let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.

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At the end of the day, nobody can tell you how to tackle failure or how to handle change. The world is very good at encouraging you to go along with the status quo and at basking in your successes. But when you hit a wall in your personal life, and you screw up, people don't give you a chance to navigate your way through it and tap into what's extraordinary about you.

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When your passion and drive are bigger than your fears, you just dive.

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I want my work to reflect my level of gifts and talent

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Each role has its own different challenges.

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I would love to be remembered as a person who used her life to inspire others in any way, shape or form.

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We grew up in abject poverty. Acting, writing scripts and skits were a way of escaping our environment at a very young age.

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Womanhood is you. Womanhood is everything that's inside of you.

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Anything can be achieved with a good, healthy dose of courage.

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But the biggest beauty advice I've given my daughter is every morning I say, "Genesis, what are the two best parts of you?" And she says "my brain and my heart." And I say, "You've gotta remember that, Genesis. You've gotta remember that you're not what you look like," you know? I think that's the best beauty advice I could give her.

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