Tamara Taylor

Have the pride of the brown girl and know that you'll figure out your own beauty in time.

I have a theory that people are either born 'yeses' or 'nos'.

My latest decorating obsession is dipping - like painting the bottom of things. I've done it to almost every terra-cotta pot in my house. Every African vase I have is painted gold on the bottom. It's so fun and easy, and it instantly livens up a piece. You feel like you've really accomplished something.

L.A. has a lot of good flea markets - the Rose Bowl is always a good one. I have taken to eBay, too. Some of my favorite things - especially chairs, for some reason - I got on eBay.

I've noticed that wherever I've lived, I've either painted murals or done something sort of ridiculously over the top to make a space my own.

L.A. is full of great hiking trails.

I think people can't say anymore, 'Celebrities should keep their political opinions to themselves,' because we elected a reality TV star, so I think that's off limits.

The key to my perseverance was absolutely loving the craft of acting. I just figured that if I kept doing it, at the very least I would get better at acting. Even if I didn't become a tremendous success, as long as I knew I was improving and getting better, to me, that was success.

Feeling successful is internal, not external.

The world tells lots of people the light is red. You have to trust yourself and say, 'I think the light is green, and I'm going to keep doing this.'

The first time I ever actually had a line was on 'A Different World', my best friend Cree Summer's show. I was in L.A. visiting her, and she said, 'Hey, there's a walk-on part, why don't you audition for it?'

It took many years of acting classes to get even remotely comfortable, but that's OK. It helped me so much on a personal level, not to mention professionally.

My philosophy is, 'Eat when hungry, stop when you're full.'

I was an only child, and my mom threw me into some modeling classes to get me out of my shell.

I saw 'Mahogany' and 'Lady Sings the Blues' when I was little and thought, 'That's what I want to do.'

Hanging out with my girlfriends is my sanity saver. We go out for a bad chick flick and dinner. I suggest you break free from the guys, see a really silly, girly movie, and get a little something to eat afterwards. It feels like a treat.

Anything salty and crunch is a world of perfection to me. Put chips in front of me, and I will eat to the bottom of the bag. Because I have the tendency to do this, I found these amazing Eden Brown Rice Chips. They're the perfect amount of salt and crunch, and there's nothing in them.

I recommend people develop a fear of elevators, like I have. Even if something is on the tenth floor, I'm walking up. If you don't have claustrophobia, pretend you do and take the stairs everywhere! It ends up being so healthy!

Every night before bed, I drop down to the floor and do 20 sit-ups, 5 push-ups and stretching. No matter what the day has been like, I drop and give myself 20 every single night.

One of the scariest moments was being on Tyler Perry's first movie, 'Diary of a Mad Black Woman.'

I try to be mindful of snacking, but salty chips sometimes sneak in. I tend to avoid sugars - luckily, I am more of a 'salty tooth' - but I try to keep my sugar intake to a minimum and find some healthy alternatives when a craving hits.

I was so shy, it almost paralyzed me in social settings. And as shy people know, that can become a vicious cycle: The more uncomfortable you feel around people, the more you retreat, and the more shy you get.

I tried martial arts classes for three weeks, but I quit because you actually get hit. I just want to do the movie kind of martial arts.

As long as you keep going, you'll keep getting better. And as you get better, you gain more confidence. That alone is success.

I had a Super Beetle that I restored and painted deep purple in honor of Jimi Hendrix that was stolen. After that, I got a Ford Falcon that had no windshield wipers, so whenever it rained - which, thankfully, in L.A. it doesn't do very much - I'd have to lean out my driver's side window like 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.'