Yara Shahidi

If you look at the history of art and fashion, it's always been political. It's always been pushing boundaries.

Being homeschooled for half of my life allowed me to choose my own curriculum and find things I really enjoy, and that's kind of inspired me. I've always been intrigued in or interested in the topics I've been covering.

L.A. is great, but it's a completely different beast. I go back to Minnesota, and I borrow a bike from my neighbor and go around Lake Harriet saying 'Hi' to people. Some of that is missing in L.A.

Having life experiences outside of acting is something my family has always made sure happens.

Quite honestly, I'm the kind of person to get my feelings hurt over something somebody said on Twitter.

I've always struggled with Hollywood feeling trivial. Red carpets aren't worth it.

When you are in the public eye as a person of color, you are given very little room to mess up.

I feel comfortable putting my political stances out there without feeling as though I am filling some sort of quota. I don't have a wokeness quota for the day.

Personally, getting into college was a big deal because I realized it's probably one of the only things I've fully planned. The rest of my life has been, for the most part, a nice little happy accident. I'm glad that it happened this way, but it's nonetheless unintentional.

On a personal level, I think dressing is such a form of expression, and when you do events, it's important to feel as though you are authentically yourself.

Maintaining a sense of your personality grounds you in your space. I try and just make what I wear a reflection of how I feel at that moment, at that particular place in time.

Fortunately I can say that social media has treated me pretty well. I've been exempt from a lot of the mean comments.

I have so many pairs of oxfords; it's ridiculous. It started because at my school you have to wear oxfords for our uniform, but after I got my first pair, I realized they were really comfortable, so they became my regular walking shoes, too.

Personally, I love denim... denim pants, a shirt, denim jacket - I'm good.

What modeling taught me at a young age was how to say 'no,' which is something girls - we're not always good at saying 'no.' We want to be nice, and then we forget to look out for ourselves.

There have been moments when I was on a modeling job, and it was the most fantastic thing in the world. And there have been moments where I've realized, 'Okay, I'm ten years old, and I've spent the past six hours outside in the rain.' It taught me how to be specific about what kinds of projects I wanted to do and what kind of work I wanted to do.

I remember my first actual intense breakout was when I was 13, and I no clue what to do because I hadn't dealt with anything in that large of a scale ever before.

My mama is African American and from Wisconsin. My baba was born in Iran. My parents have stressed the idea of creating your own path, and creating your own identity is part of that. That's why embracing these two cultures is important to me.

The more you learn about someone, how could you not want to protect them and their rights? The more you learn about a culture or a certain identity, it's hard to not feel empathy.

I am just a history nerd.

Fashion is one of those places in which, when you're wearing something that feels like a representation of you, it does create, in a matter of speaking, a space for you to exist. Even if it's just in a two-inch radius of where you are. It's a walking, personalized area in which you can live.

When you're a part of any protected class, whether it is being a woman, a person of color, a part of the LGBTQ community, or an immigrant, we're expected to get everything right and be the embodiment of perfection when it is not expected of other people.

I'm double majoring in social studies - which is sociology, anthropology, economics, and philosophy - and African-American studies.

I go on and off home-school and regular school, but the kids don't treat me any differently because they've all known me forever.

When you're biracial, you can feel like you're fully neither, not fully both. But I won't strip away my heritage for anyone's comfort.