Actress and activist America Ferrera followed her dreams when the odds were stacked against her — now she's using her success to ensure other women of color have a voice, too.

“There are people who are making it systematically more difficult for certain people to vote, namely people of color and poor people,” she stated. “We will never be represented in government, we will never be represented in the systems that define our lives, if we don’t show up.”

When Ferrera was young, she was told that no dream is impossible in this country, but she is now aware of how unlikely it is for most people to achieve their “American Dream.”

“There are a lot of obstacles standing in the way of someone like me,” she explained. “I’m keenly aware that the American Dream is not without obstacles standing in the way for so many of us.”

However, she believes it’s important to empower others with the platform that she has been given.

“I, part of me, was crushed when I realized this dream that I had believed in for so long wasn’t accessible to everybody,” she said. “And so early on, I wanted to be a part of closing that gap.”

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