Camila Mendes

I'm a Brazilian - full blood, parents born and raised, and I lived there for a little bit - but I didn't grow up there.

Miami can be super-kitschy at times, and it's fun to embrace that.

I often hear things like, 'You don't look Latina enough,' and that mentality is so backwards. The fact is, I am Latina, so how are you going to tell me that I don't look Latina?

I have so much appreciation for how those two cultures have created who I am. I'm a full-blooded Brazilian, with an entire extended family of Brazilians, but I was born and raised in the U.S.

It's rare that you see Latin families being portrayed as intelligent, sophisticated, and powerful entities.

If you're going to become a better person, do it in high school.

A good listener goes a long way.

In high school, I was friends with everybody. I had my core group of friends, but I could flow through different social groups pretty easily.

If I could go back to before I started 'Riverdale,' I would tell myself to speak up when I felt like something wasn't right - to use my voice and know that it's worth hearing.

It's easy to think you have to fit some kind of mold.

I grew up watching 'Gossip Girl' and 'The O.C.,' and I looked up to Blair Waldorf and Summer Roberts.

I rewatched 'The O.C.,' like, seven times!

My perfect day would be spent poolside with some friends.

Invest in a trainer. You see the progress so quickly, and you push yourself in new ways.

I've always looked up to Nicole Kidman. I think she's an elegant and talented actress. You can tell how much she commits to her characters, and I admire that.

If I were to be a role model, it would just come out of going the college route, getting training, and trusting that's the most secure path you can take - a path where a degree is involved. You know you went to college, and you have that under your belt.

I'm not more Brazilian than I am American or vice-versa - I'm very much a combination of all of those things.

My sister would write plays, and I would act in them and perform them for my parents. They were on the comedy side, very much inspired by 'The Amanda Show.'

At an early age, somehow we're programmed to view other females as threats.

In any job you do, you're going to have off days.

Everyone's bodies are different, and we all have different shapes, but it has nothing to do with who you are.

Rachel Bilson, Nicole Richie, Vanessa Hudgens... so many of my idols growing up were Bongo girls.

It was tragic every single time my mom told me we were moving. I would always envy my friends who had grown up in the same house their entire life, and they had markings on the wall of 'me at five years old' and all that. It made me so sad. I wished I'd had that.

I like communicating and being open and committing. That, for me, has always been something that I like to do.

It took living alone for me to really get to know myself.