Carmen Carrera

I consider myself an activist for women like me, who want to be confident and don't want to be judged.

When you live this trans experience, there's a point and time in your life that you almost stop developing because you don't know where to go.

For a long time trans people have always been a joke. Our reputation has always been the bottom of the barrel and it's not fair.

It would be pretty amazing for Victoria's Secret to be that huge corporation that embraces trans women. We shop there as well.

Trans women are a part of the female population and I think that they deserve a respectful representation.

For any model in this industry, you never know if you're going to get work. You never know if people are going to relate to you, and embrace you. And then being trans is kind of like - I hate to say it - but it's kind of like a setback.

My life isn't really that different from a biological female.

It just so happens that I'm trans. It shouldn't have to be like 'Oh, that's the trans model selling the trans clothes.'

Trans people are beautiful. It's a different kind of beauty, and it should be recognized and respected.

Beauty is the ability to utilize the tools provided in order to showcase your spirit in order to show your true soul.

Beauty is the idea of who you truly are.

Beauty comes from within, but it's up to us to use fashion and beauty to express who we are on the inside.

Everyone else is following these male and female tracks that have already been set for them, but when you're trans there is no trail.

I want to be able to supply the knowledge that transgender women need in order to live peacefully and become accepted among all men and women.

Loyalty is my favorite quality in a 'bestie.'

My favorite hip hop album would be the 'Miseducation of Lauren Hill.'

My coffee usually is very light, very sweet with milk preferably Almond Milk but if not available I take whole milk but I'm trying to go vegan, so I try for at least soy.

I always love working with other creative talent.

I'm very passionate and believe that every time the LGBT community is featured in the media, people are learning about us.

I want to be a mom. I want to be a wife.

Courtney Love gave me advice on how to stay focused. She told me I have a lot of positivity and I have a lot of light and to just stay on that path, because it's easy to become affected by the negativity.

I've learned that my word carries weight, and that's something I have to always have to keep in mind.

The way I see things is that, I think that transgender people are super brave. If you're a female to male, male to female, if you're that brave to take control of your own body and make it however you want it to be, more power to you.

I ended up going to public school in the first grade, and that's when I knew I had to be very strategic about my survival in school. I tried my best to be friends with people who were going to protect me.

I like to think of myself as an active American in our politics, but I get lost sometimes watching everything.

Most Americans need to be told discrimination against trans people is against the law. Instead of looking at us as people, they look at us as not people. If there's a law that states this treatment is not allowed, I'd feel safer to function more confidently in society because I'd know I'm protected by the law in the country I pay taxes in.

Being in the entertainment industry, I do have some privileges, but when I'm off sets and in the real world, I'm a trans individual whose rights and safety have been taken away.

I'd like to live in a country where I feel safe.

I just want to say that I'm, like, living for myself, because I was onstage at Radio City Music Hall with Christina Aguilera - and my name was on the screen. It was a big moment!

Drag has always been an open space where anyone within the LGBT community can express their creativity.

When you don't have a support system, and you're constantly being bullied for who you are, and you begin to not accept yourself for who you are, it's a distraction from schoolwork. It's a distraction from learning and from growing.

Every one of us deserves the right to have a great education that's going to prepare us and give us the tools that we need in order to thrive outside of school. It's our government's responsibility to make sure that everyone is included.

There's a lot of healing that needs to happen between the LGBT community and the cisgender heterosexual world. There's a ton of misunderstanding.

I've been told that I can't do things simply because I was trans.

We cannot let fear and terror dictate how we live our lives, no matter what. Life is a blessing with an expiration date, and we must embrace it while we can.

I would love to do more modeling. I would love to do anything really, mainstream, and help to create, I guess, a feeling of acceptance for people who are different and not look at them like they're freaks or whatever.

I got kicked out of Catholic school, by the way, because I was too feminine. I was too feminine and I had a crush on this boy named Anthony and the nuns were not having it.

Your gender should not matter in your heart or in the way you express your personality.

I want to make 'People' magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.

I see the human body as your soul's apartment.

In all honesty plastic surgery these days goes hand-in-hand with beauty maintenance. It's nothing new. Who I am, my body, I was not created from surgery, at all, whatsoever.

Luckily for me the public have known me before my transition and I've always had the same body type.

Drag Race' was when I was kind of confused about how I wanted to live the rest of my life and I was just having fun, a little ignorant, a little young.

Before my transition I felt trapped, and now I've been set free.

Being a woman means everything to me.

Stepping into the gym or going out to do sports is a scary thing for a trans person - you feel like everyone is looking at you.

Regardless of whether you're in a gay or heterosexual relationship, you're going to go through your ups and downs.

And I come from a very proud Hispanic family. We're proud to be Latino. We're proud to be Peruvian. And my dad's side is proud to be Puerto Rican.

For me, I've tried to always live in the moment and I don't think that much about what is law, what is written down.

I like to jump around, and it takes a long time for people to catch up to me sometimes.