I like to think of myself as an active American in our politics, but I get lost sometimes watching everything.
— Carmen Carrera
I'd like to live in a country where I feel safe.
Drag has always been an open space where anyone within the LGBT community can express their creativity.
There's a lot of healing that needs to happen between the LGBT community and the cisgender heterosexual world. There's a ton of misunderstanding.
We must learn to exist together in peace and love people as they are. That is the only way humanity wins.
I got kicked out of Catholic school, by the way, because I was too feminine. I was too feminine and I had a crush on this boy named Anthony and the nuns were not having it.
I see the human body as your soul's apartment.
Drag Race' was when I was kind of confused about how I wanted to live the rest of my life and I was just having fun, a little ignorant, a little young.
Feeling comfortable with your body as you go through a transition is not easy, and honestly, as a trans person on hormones or after surgery, you just don't really know what your results will be, how you'll finally look. Managing all of that is a challenge.
When you live this trans experience, there's a point and time in your life that you almost stop developing because you don't know where to go.
It would be pretty amazing for Victoria's Secret to be that huge corporation that embraces trans women. We shop there as well.
My life isn't really that different from a biological female.
Beauty is the ability to utilize the tools provided in order to showcase your spirit in order to show your true soul.
I consider myself an activist for women like me, who want to be confident and don't want to be judged.
My favorite hip hop album would be the 'Miseducation of Lauren Hill.'
I'm very passionate and believe that every time the LGBT community is featured in the media, people are learning about us.
Courtney Love gave me advice on how to stay focused. She told me I have a lot of positivity and I have a lot of light and to just stay on that path, because it's easy to become affected by the negativity.
Most Americans need to be told discrimination against trans people is against the law. Instead of looking at us as people, they look at us as not people. If there's a law that states this treatment is not allowed, I'd feel safer to function more confidently in society because I'd know I'm protected by the law in the country I pay taxes in.
My message is: beauty has no gender. At the end of the day beauty is beauty.
When you don't have a support system, and you're constantly being bullied for who you are, and you begin to not accept yourself for who you are, it's a distraction from schoolwork. It's a distraction from learning and from growing.
I've been told that I can't do things simply because I was trans.
We cannot let fear and terror dictate how we live our lives, no matter what. Life is a blessing with an expiration date, and we must embrace it while we can.
Your gender should not matter in your heart or in the way you express your personality.
In all honesty plastic surgery these days goes hand-in-hand with beauty maintenance. It's nothing new. Who I am, my body, I was not created from surgery, at all, whatsoever.
Before my transition I felt trapped, and now I've been set free.
Stepping into the gym or going out to do sports is a scary thing for a trans person - you feel like everyone is looking at you.
I run into a lot of ignorance and stupidity. It gets really frustrating, but you have to take yourself out of it and realize what's happening in the bigger picture.
Trans women are a part of the female population and I think that they deserve a respectful representation.
It just so happens that I'm trans. It shouldn't have to be like 'Oh, that's the trans model selling the trans clothes.'
Beauty is the idea of who you truly are.
I want to be able to supply the knowledge that transgender women need in order to live peacefully and become accepted among all men and women.
My coffee usually is very light, very sweet with milk preferably Almond Milk but if not available I take whole milk but I'm trying to go vegan, so I try for at least soy.
I want to be a mom. I want to be a wife.
I've learned that my word carries weight, and that's something I have to always have to keep in mind.
Being in the entertainment industry, I do have some privileges, but when I'm off sets and in the real world, I'm a trans individual whose rights and safety have been taken away.
I just want to say that I'm, like, living for myself, because I was onstage at Radio City Music Hall with Christina Aguilera - and my name was on the screen. It was a big moment!
Every one of us deserves the right to have a great education that's going to prepare us and give us the tools that we need in order to thrive outside of school. It's our government's responsibility to make sure that everyone is included.
The only way to combat hate is by demonstrating empathy and love.
I ended up going to public school in the first grade, and that's when I knew I had to be very strategic about my survival in school. I tried my best to be friends with people who were going to protect me.
I want to make 'People' magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.
Luckily for me the public have known me before my transition and I've always had the same body type.
Being a woman means everything to me.
Everyone else is following these male and female tracks that have already been set for them, but when you're trans there is no trail.
For a long time trans people have always been a joke. Our reputation has always been the bottom of the barrel and it's not fair.
For any model in this industry, you never know if you're going to get work. You never know if people are going to relate to you, and embrace you. And then being trans is kind of like - I hate to say it - but it's kind of like a setback.
Trans people are beautiful. It's a different kind of beauty, and it should be recognized and respected.
Beauty comes from within, but it's up to us to use fashion and beauty to express who we are on the inside.
Loyalty is my favorite quality in a 'bestie.'
I always love working with other creative talent.
I want to be a successful trans woman burlesque performer.
