00:00and now we're moving on to essence who were your role models growing up both those you knew
00:06personally and public figures i was really fortunate in terms of role models i had amazing
00:15parents i have an amazing mother and father who really truly believed in me in every way shape
00:20or form me and my five siblings all of us were really believed in but i also had these great
00:27role models on television oprah was on television i'm from chicago so if you're from chicago oprah's
00:32kind of a religion oprah was on television when i was coming up and to me she was this woman who
00:39did not look like anybody else who was sort of taking over the world through television
00:42and i really found her to be amazing i watched her every single day whoopi goldberg was on broadway
00:49doing her one woman show and i remember seeing that on um one of the cable channels and thinking
00:55to myself like oh you can write about anything so i had that going on for me felicia shod was
01:02on television as america's mom there were a lot of women out there who are smart working thinking
01:06amazing women who are doing great things that were right in front of my face all the time
01:10you know on television that i could see for myself not just you know not just the women in my household
01:17but the women out out in the world were also there too for everybody else why did you partner with
01:22barbie to address the importance of having strong women role models i thought partnering with barbie
01:30to create a doll was an amazing opportunity to present just a different image of what a woman could
01:37be you know we can be obviously be anything we can obviously look any way we can be all be strong and
01:45smart and powerful and run our worlds in any way that we want to whether you're a mom or an astronaut
01:52or a television showrunner and i love the idea of presenting this vision that was who i was it never
02:00in my whole life occurred to me that i would ever be a doll growing up i mean like that to me was sort
02:06of a mind-blowing concept when they even came to me so to me like to be able to present that that image
02:12to another young girl who doesn't necessarily see people who look like her is wonderful and exciting
02:17and i'm thrilled to be able to do it with the dream gap in mind how did you find courage to make some
02:23of the bold moves that allowed you to have the success and create the projects that have had such
02:28an impact on culture i think the best part about how i got to where i am was that being courageous is
02:38you know as we all know it's not the absence of fear it's doing things in spite of having any fear
02:43and i just was raised to believe that it didn't matter if you were afraid it didn't matter if
02:48something was difficult you belong in any room that you're in and you might as well make the best of
02:52that situation and so to me like that was what this was about i wasn't interested in other people's
02:59opinions of what i could be or who i should be i was interested in my own opinions of that and that
03:04really goes down to how i was raised and who i was raised to believe i was
03:09and i think that for most young women that should be what they're holding on to like believe in who
03:14you think you are versus what other people are telling you you have the right to be
03:19what advice do you have not only for young girls but every young adult woman dealing with self-doubt
03:26self-doubt is just a story that you're telling yourself about your own capabilities and the
03:35reality of the situation is is even though there are obstacles even though things can be hard even
03:40though you may not be sure you're going to succeed telling yourself that you're not going to succeed
03:45isn't going to get you anywhere telling yourself that you have the option and the opportunity to be
03:50successful or to look at something like a challenge is a way of moving forward and a way of fighting
03:56for what you want so to me like i always feel like self-doubt should be looked at as instead
04:00like a challenge to yourself to do something better or to do better for yourself
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