Hi, guys, how are you? So good to see you guys, so you guys having
a good night? I have to say that it’s such an honour to
be here, it is, I’m so happy to be here, I’m like a nerd and brought my own speech
but I hope it’s OK that I take this opportunity to really just spend with you guys and tell
you a little bit about my story. I’m not an activist, I haven’t changed
the world or led a campaign, I’m here to just tell you my path, so that you hopefully
can take something away from it, because I don’t like being honest with — this is
a truth — I don’t like being honest with press and interviews, I like being honest
with you, directly, which is each and every one of you. Because I feel like I can and I’m just going
to start with the basics, so I’m 21 and my mom had, my mom had me when she was 16. And I’m from Grand Prairie, Texas, and she
worked four jobs and completely dedicated her life into making mine better. So, to me, she is the definition of a strong
woman. And I love her so much. Because she’s taught me those values so
much. Thank you. I have been acting my entire life and I have
known since I was first on Barney, you know that purple dinosaur, he’s great. You guys are so motivated, I feel like I can
say anything! When I was eleven, the point being is that
when I was seven I wanted to be an actress and I wanted to live my dream. And when I was eleven I had a casting director
tell that I wasn’t strong enough to carry my own show. And I’m sure all of you have been told that
you don’t have what it takes and you may not be good enough and you don’t have enough
people supporting you and you’ve been told all of these things when deep down it’s
all you want to do. You want to be a part of something great. You want to make something great. And it does more than not the wind out of
you and crushes you when people try to tell you that you’re not good enough. And it almost did for me but there was my
mom next to me stronger than ever and she said the most important thing is to always
trust in myself. If I have, if I’m doing something because
I love it, I should do it because I love it and I believe that I can do it. So she told me to keep going, thank you, she
told me and she taught me to turn the other cheek and let the credits, the critics be
critics, and let us just trust ourselves. So for me, thank you, two years later, I got
my own show and the first thought, the first thought wasn’t oh man, that girl when
I was eleven said that I wouldn’t carry my own show and I did, I mean, I thought about
that for a little bit, but I thought about what my mom said. My mom is like you have to trust yourself
and I realized that if I didn’t believe that I could do it, I wouldn’t be able to
be here. And I have, I’m going to say I live a very
blessed life, I have so much to be thankful for and a lot of you are big part of inspiring
me because I don’t think you get it and maybe you’re not old enough, but you inspire
me to be better and we should inspire each other to be better. I’m surrounded by people who are supposed
to guide me and some of them have and others haven’t. They pressure me, there’s so much pressure,
you’ve got to be sexy, you’ve got to be cute, you’ve got to be nice, you’ve got
to be all these things! And I’m sure you can all relate, you all
have pressure that you have to deal with every day. I’m sure at school, at work, with friends,
with parents, with family, parents, I know, sometimes with mine, they tell me what to
wear, how to look, what I should say, how I should be. Until recently, I had given in to that pressure. I lost sight of who I was. I listened to opinions of people and I tried
to change who I am because I thought that others would accept me for it. And I realized I don’t know how to be anything
but myself. And all I really want you to know is that
you are changing the world, I’m not changing the world, you’re changing the world and
that’s amazing! Please, please just be kind to each other
and love and inspire people because let’s do it! Let’s do it, let’s change the game, let’s
change the game! The most important thing is that we learn
and we continue to learn from each other. Please stay true to yourself, please just
remain who you are and know that we have each other’s back, all of us have each other’s
back. I’d be lying if I said that I never tried
to make myself better by giving in, because I have, but I’ve learned from my actions,
and for all of the things I’ve done I’m proudest of that I’ve learnt from my mistakes. I want you to know what it’s like that I
know what it’s like. Figuring out what types of friends you have,
you are who you surround yourself with. So I just want to say I hope I can inspire
each and every one of you to just trust in yourselves, to love and to be loved, and thank
you for allowing me to come up and ramble and talk to you guys because this is such
a beautiful thing you’re doing. Be proud of yourselves. This is great!
