A Quote by Teyana Taylor

Kids can't look up to girls who are trying to be growner than they are. — © Teyana Taylor
Kids can't look up to girls who are trying to be growner than they are.
It's great for the little girls coming through the system now to have women to look up to because, when I was younger, my role models were more, like, Michael Owen and players from the men's team, but I get kids messaging me now saying they look up to me, and that's really touching for me, but it's great for the kids to have people to look up to.
Classically posh girls like Victoria Hervey are now trying to be Hollywood girls. Hollywood girls are trying to be posh girls. Everything is all mixed up, turned on its head.
[10 Things I Hate About You] keeps popping up, and it's become a go-to film specifically for adolescent girls who are trying to find their voice, which is a really important thing, and the characters in the film, the two sisters played by Julia Stiles and Larisa Oleynik, they became archetypes for young teenage girls to look up to and emulate.
Right now, women's worth is being quantified by how they look and their Instagrams and likes. That's all so self-created, so why are we trying to add to that? It's hard enough to be a young woman, or man, growing up and trying to find your identity, rather than having a whole Internet of people weighing in on it. It makes me sad for those kids.
I don't feel that I'm a role model. I'm just me. If people want to look up to me then that's their business. I'm not perfect and I don't consider myself to be a role model. But to be honest, I'd much rather my kids look up to me than look up to some rock star who gets off jail more times than is even funny.
What I'm doing is trying to get kids to pay attention, to look at the physical world more, and to question everything. I am trying to get kids out of the house and away from screens.
They always say girls mature faster than boys, but I don't think that's true because I think girls just are more mature than boys. We're always trying to catch up to them.
The fictitious worlds created for kids are nearly bereft of female presence. It's sending a very clear message from the beginning that women and girls do not have half of the adventures, that they're not as important. We're teaching kids that girls and women don't take up half the space in the world.
For me, drag has always been about being someone younger kids can look up to, or even older kids can look up to as well, and I want to continue to tour and travel and entertain.
As a teenager I was really self-conscious because I was so much taller than everyone else. And in Australia there weren't many black girls around - there definitely weren't any dark girls on TV - so I didn't really have anyone to look up to.
With social media, with Instagram and selfies and all these apps that are trying to make you look perfect... it's hard for girls to grow up nowadays with all that stuff.
I would say how important it is that we stop teaching kids, from the beginning, that boys are more important than girls. It's the 21st century, you know, let's go here. We have to show kids that boys and girls share the sandbox equally and do equally interesting things. We're teaching kids something that we have to try to get rid of later on. Why not just stop filling them with unconscious gender bias?
When I look at the kids training today... I can tell which ones are going to do well. It's not necessarily the ones who have the most natural talent or who fall the least. Sometimes it's the kids who fall the most, and keep pulling themselves up and trying again.
I want to tell girls, it's not about make-up and how you look that's important; you are so much more than how you look.
Kids can be cruel enough as it is, but cyber bullying or you're on Instagram and see your friends are all somewhere and you're not there. Then it's like, "Why am I not there?" Girls are using apps to change the way their faces look so the look quote-unquote perfect and beautiful. I feel like kids these days, it's gotta be just a big ball of anxiety.
I don't like girls who wear lots of make-up and you can't see their face. Some girls are beautiful but insecure and look much better without the make-up, but decide to put loads on. I like girls with nice eyes and a nice smile.
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