00:00Why did you feel it was important to write a book now?
00:07I don't belong to you.
00:08It's a very powerful title.
00:09Tell me a little bit why.
00:10Because I think this is where we really have to start.
00:13I mean, at this age, or I don't know when,
00:15we're going to be able to take ownership of ourselves.
00:17I found that I was able to achieve so much more in my life
00:20as I started to gain more confidence
00:22and learn how to build my confidence with myself
00:24by caring about how I feel,
00:26trying yoga, meditation,
00:27and giving myself a moment of silence
00:29and learning different practices that allow my mind to be clear enough
00:32to where my creativity can flow through.
00:34And so I wanted to write it because it's like,
00:36look, I'm 23.
00:37I've been exposed to so many things
00:39that unfortunately not a lot of people my age have been exposed to
00:41because of money and things such as that.
00:44And so I felt like it would be a disservice to not only them
00:47but to myself to not give that away.
00:49It wasn't giving me to just hold inside.
00:52I know when I read the book, because I mentioned off-camera
00:54that I had a preview copy, if you will,
00:56I found it really shocking.
00:57You've had so much success from such a young age
00:59that you struggled with self-esteem issues.
01:01Definitely.
01:02So how did you exactly tap into that and say,
01:04you know what, this is who I am and I'm owning it?
01:06Because you're definitely owning it.
01:07Oh my gosh, thank you.
01:08Well, I started to realize,
01:09my self-esteem issues came from the industry,
01:12meaning the industry started to pigeonhole me.
01:14And in turn, me trying to let, trying to maneuver myself
01:18to let them pigeonhole me as one thing,
01:20not as multifaceted as I actually am,
01:22that in turn is what made me have low self-esteem
01:24because I was not putting myself first.
01:26And so what happened was I spent a lot of time
01:29in and out of depression and my anxiety
01:32and understanding that culturally that is something
01:34that, you know, my family has dealt with for years.
01:37And coming to understand all these things,
01:39I started to peel back the layers
01:41and I pretty much just started to simplify
01:43what the problem was, which is that,
01:44yo, I gotta be kinder to me.
01:46I gotta take time for me.
01:47I have to put, input practices in place in my life
01:50that allow me to feel good about me,
01:52what I'm eating, like I say, what I'm ingesting,
01:54the knowledge, the things I'm reading.
01:55People you're around.
01:56The people I'm around.
01:57All those things that we just think, you know what I mean?
01:59It's like, as a kid, when your mom is like,
02:01yo, we gotta go to church.
02:02Your dad is like, let's go to church.
02:03Like, why we gotta go to church?
02:04I realized that's why.
02:05Church, let's take away the whole religion part of it
02:08that gives people the heebie-jeebies.
02:10And let's just say, church is just meant to be a place
02:12where people that are like-minded can go together
02:14and talk and uplift one another.
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