To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I wanted to just be like everyone else, now I don't 'cause that's boring.

-- Jorja Smith

One of the things few people know is that shyness itself is not a disorder but it is rather an escape mechanism that people use to run from certain problems such as lack of self-esteem.

-- 2knowmyself

Excerpt from Farouk's email titled "This is why you lack self confidence".

You acted on something stronger to you than sense, stronger than safety, stronger than judgment.

-- Caroline McHugh

This, according to Caroline, is what happens when you "happen on an Absolute."

She says that Absolutes are "what Martin Luther King Junior called the content of my character, and they govern every choice I make and everything I do."

What means as much to you as Love, Individuality, and Freedom to me?

-- Caroline McHugh

People need labels to judge you, and if you don't judge yourself by the labels, you disempower them.

-- Caroline McHugh

Knowing your absolutes not only helps you to express yourself, it gives you the criteria by which to judge yourself.

-- Caroline McHugh

Love, Individuality, and Freedom are what I call my Absolutes, what Martin Luther King Junior called the content of my character, and they govern every choice I make and everything I do. How I parent my children. How I run my business. Where I buy my shoes. How I get dressed in the morning. They choose the movies I love and the people I befriend.

-- Caroline McHugh

My commitment to myself and those around me is to live my deepest humanity, and to use that to be a contribution, so freedom doesn't just describe what I want for myself. It describes my world view and what I deem the most basic of human rights.

-- Caroline McHugh

Feeling guilty is contingent on the past and fear depends on the future. If you live in the moment, neither are possible.

-- Caroline McHugh

Individuality: the quality or character of a person or thing that distinguishes them from others of the same kind.

-- Caroline McHugh

More than I can remember, women in particular made comments about being brave, only because they couldn't imagine their heads without hair.

-- Caroline McHugh

Bravery = doing what you can't imagine doing or being what you can't imagine being

Doing what you can't imagine doing or being what you can't imagine being => goals that your subconscious mind cares about

Think of as many labels as you can. You might be faced with twenty or thirty yous. Consider how much you're defined by them. How much of your sense of who you are is vested in each one? In which of your roles do you feel the most you? Most fulfilled? Most alive? Which of them do you feel most passionately about? Which do you feel are most important? Not in terms of priority but in terms of identity ... being a stranger is more a part of me than being a godmother.

-- Caroline McHugh

Priority versus Identity. You can spend much of your time being a son, a brother or even an engineer. But that does not have to define you.

How do we bring more and more people into opportunity and success and feeling hopeful about their lives ... I said as much as we've done with laws and ending "don't ask don't tell" etc., changing hearts and minds, I don't think anybody's been more influential than you on that. I really mean so. Your courage and you're just really likable and so you being willing to claim who you were then suddenly empowers other people and then suddenly it's your brother, it's your uncle, it's your best friend, it's your co-workers and then attitudes shift and the laws followed but it started with folks like you.

-- Barack Obama

This quote was taken from President Obama's interview on Ellen. It is part of his response to Ellen after she thanked him for advocating for LGBT Americans.

Your subconscious mind can never accept something that can be changed. You can accept the death of a relative because you know that he won't come back but you would never accept loving your body if there are things that can be changed about it.

-- M.Farouk Radwan

That's what I've always been fighting for - making sure that people love themselves for who they are, and we don't pick on people because we're uncomfortable with ourselves, or who they are. That's been my message, from when I was young to now. There are lots of young girls out there who are struggling with their identities... afraid of being discriminated against or teased. I take risks and use my imagination so that other people will feel free and take risks. That's my hope.

-- Janelle Monae

Excerpt from an article on Janelle Monae

Monae is clear that she makes her artistic decisions to give others courage to break out of the norm. She says: "That's what I've always been fighting for - making sure that people love themselves for who they are, and we don't pick on people because we're uncomfortable with ourselves, or who they are. That's been my message, from when I was young to now. There are lots of young girls out there who are struggling with their identities… afraid of being discriminated against or teased. I take risks and use my imagination so that other people will feel free and take risks. That's my hope."

-- io9

Excerpt from an article on Janelle Monae

Monae is clear that she makes her artistic decisions to give others courage to break out of the norm.

-- io9

Excerpt from an article on Janelle Monae. The fact that she makes the clarity an important aspect of her art is commendable.

Monae is working with her collective, the Wondaland Arts Society, to carve out a space for us all to be brave enough to be ourselves. The word "weirdo" shows up in many of her songs. In "Faster:" Am I a freak? Or just another little weirdo? Call me weak, or better yet – you can call me your hero, baby. It also comes up in her history; when she was 12, she was in a band called The Weirdoz.

-- io9

Excerpt from an article on Janelle Monae

Monae is working with her collective, the Wondaland Arts Society, to carve out a space for us all to be brave enough to be ourselves. The word "weirdo" shows up in many of her songs.

-- io9

Excerpt from an article on Janelle Monae