What took time for my mom was getting the pronouns right and calling me by a different name. Laverne was my middle name before I transitioned.
My name is Charlie Murphy. I was born into this name, and I've been rolling how I've been rolling my whole life.
God, in a dream, talked to me, and he gave me that name. I'm like, 'you know what God? That is a funny name! I might need to run with it!' And ever since then, I've been calling myself Swaggy P. It's a household name.
My mom just brought me to the school of my coach. And I've trained with him my whole life. I started there, and it was totally natural for me. When I got to be 12 years old, I understood: it wasn't a job for me. It was my life.
People have been calling me names and setting me back my whole life. And with every fight it's just given me more fuel to my fire and in doing so I've become a success.
I thought my mom's whole purpose was to be my mom. That's how she made me feel.
The last time I saw my mom was in 1997. My mom started getting sick, and my mom finally passed away in 2002. My mom was my world. My mom was everything to me. We didn't have money. We didn't have a whole lot of materialistic things, but one thing I can truly say, that my mother loved me and all of her children unconditionally.
You have to trust that if you are calling my name in a way that is offensive to me, I'm going to share it with you. But you also have to know what your feelings are behind calling me "bell."
My mom was a sub teacher her whole life. My aunt was a teacher her whole life. So that wasn't hard to do. Performing in front of people started when I was a child. My mom ran a theatre. So we were around it. Getting up in front of people has never been an issue. So I think once you get over that part of it, I'm happy to teach anybody anything.
When Andrew [Ridgeley] first met my family, he heard my mom calling me "Yorgos." He just abbreviated it to Yog, and unfortunately it stuck. I hated it is a teenager. It was not the most glamorous-sounding name in the world.
My first name is a boy's name. It's Tanner. I've always gone by my middle name but, yeah, my first name is Tanner. And King is my mom's last name. I took my mom's last name since I was 18.
There is nothing in a name. My husband, Santhosh Menon, called me Navya at first, which I did not like as it was my screen name. He knew me as Navya and found calling me Dhanya strange, so he came up with a pet name.
I was always in front of the camera. My mom was really passionate about photography - I have pictures of my whole life. I've always just been in front of my mom's camera and it's always comfortable to me.
I was always in front of the camera. My mom was really passionate about photography - I have pictures of my whole life. I've always just been in front of my mom's camera, and it's always comfortable to me.
I've been performing my whole life. My mom signed me up for a theater program when I was five - I was the evil queen in 'Once Upon a Mattress.'
My parents couldn't give me a whole lot of financial support, but they gave me good genes. My dad is a handsome son-of-a-gun, and my mom is beautiful. And I've definitely been the lucky recipient. So, thank you, Mom and Dad.