Yara Shahidi

“At Harvard, I got to meet and have dinner with Jamaica Kincaid. Just to have conversations with professors was absolutely amazing.”

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

“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.”

“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 sp...”

“I am just a history nerd.”

“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.”

“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 comfort...”

“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.”

“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'...”

“I am all about comfort and whatever comes along with comfort. I wear a lot of sweats. But I'm also very preppy naturally.”

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

“For me, personally, I'm usually not on my phone that much. I prefer listening to old radio shows and watching foreign films than tweeting.”

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

“Gender is a spectrum.”

“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.”

“I have the support of my parents and my teachers. They made it very possible for me to go to a school that is open and supportive of me being gone at times and pursuing acting. But school al...”

“I've always loved watches. It's been the one thing that I've asked for, whether it was every Christmas or a birthday.”