A Quote by Lena Waithe

The truth is, for me, when I was a young black girl who knew I was different, was watching TV, I would always be staring at the TV set looking for myself, and I didn't see me. And when you don't see yourself, you start to think that you don't matter, or you start to think that something is wrong with you.
I had always watched HGTV with my mom when I was very young, we would cuddle and watch interior design shows. I think those TV shows are what made me start thinking about aesthetics in a critical way. I think I could always tell when a person or an item was different or expensive or well designed and that was always exciting to me to see.
I never thought of myself as being that good looking, I was an actor, people saw me on television, and then they start to think you're good looking because of that presentation. I was no better looking before the show, than after - and before the TV show I couldn't get a date to save my life. So what changed? Did I suddenly become more good looking? No. I got lucky, I got a TV show. That's what happened.
I believe that good television should be challenging and frustrating and maddening and thrilling. If you just want to see people who look like you and think like you and do what you would do in any given situation, you'd have to stop looking at TV and start looking in a mirror. But would that be as much fun?
The way I see it, truth only looks good when you're looking at it from far away. It's kind of like that beautiful girl you see on the street when you're riding past in the bus... there she is, this amazing girl walking by on the street, and you think if you could only get off this stupid bus and introduce yourself to her, your life would change. The thing is, she's not as perfect as you think, and if you ever got off the bus to introduce yourself, you'd find out... This girl is truth. She's not so pretty, not so nice. But then, once you get to know her, all that stuff doesn't seem to matter.
You can talk yourself out of doing something if you start to think about, "How would this person see it, or that person see it?" So sometimes it's allowing myself to be in it and not talking myself out of it.
You see now more girls getting involved in their sports because they can see it on TV and see these people playing, and I think - the more and more it's exposed and is out there - it will continue to grow and grow. They watch it on TV and think, 'Well, that could be me!'
When people see me on TV, they become very happy because they don't have to interact with me. When they start interacting with me, they ask me questions like I'm a baby or treat me like I'm a baby and hold me like I'm a baby, and that's what they do wrong, really.
I think a natural evolution for me would be to try to transfer over into the film and TV world and start playing different characters. Hopefully, that way, I can keep entertaining my fans that are fans of me, in different avenues and different spotlights. It's a natural evolution.
I think you will see a point where the traditional model of advertising on TV or advertising online will go, and advertisers will cover one programme, no matter what platform it's being broadcast on. You'll see the same ads whether you are watching it on your TV, your computer or your phone.
Young kids out here see what's on TV and feel like they can start rapping. They think rappers are rich and really have their own jets and Bentleys, but in lot of cases that stuff is rented.
I've seen [Donald Trump] appear in a film or a TV show cameo or the tabloids, and he's a grotesquely distasteful human being and always has been, always made me want to take a shower. But other people fell in love with him as a reality star. So does that mean that the entertainment industry is doing something wrong? I think reality TV answered that question a long time ago: Yes, it's doing something terribly wrong. But there's some great reality TV, and I'm not bagging on it completely.
And I think that’s a lot of the reason why when you start to fragment your audience, you start to think about what you’re looking for, you’ll go to different spaces, and it parallels what we do as adults. You go to different bars when you’re in the mood for different things. You see different people when you want to go listen to music or when you just want to have a quiet drink with a couple of friends.
I remember when I was young, I was watching TV, and my father came into the room, agitated, and told me to start a business. I was eight years old.
When you're young, it's hard to see the reality behind such a demanding career, but I loved it, and I couldn't see myself doing anything else. So in my mind, from the minute I had to seriously start thinking about my future, I knew musical theatre was it for me.
I think there's definitely much more opportunities for women now to find a role in 30s and 40s both. I think you're starting to find people really seeing that - here's the thing. It's hard for me to say and know the experience how it was ten, twenty years ago because I was only in my teens and my 20s, but I know from watching TV myself and watching film myself I see a lot more 30s and 40s on screen, which just makes me very, very happy. It's what we should be watching.
I could see myself being on a TV show, but I think touring is something I'll always do.
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