Aussies are really laid back, and so are Californians.
— Ruby Rose
I wanted to represent minorities in the respect of people who had been bullied in school or people who were gay or lesbian or trans or people who aren't blonde haired and blue-eyed. I have short hair, and I am covered in tattoos. I like showing people that it's within their rights to be different.
You don't wake up at 18 and necessarily become the person you want to be as an adult - you have to work hard to become them.
When I first started in the industry back home in Australia at 18, there was a lot of push and shove as to how I should dress, if I was allowed to cut my hair short, if I had too many tattoos. If I didn't get a campaign, or if I didn't get a role, they would always come back to, 'Well, she dresses like a boy.'
I feel the most confident in whatever I'm feeling at that time. Sometimes it's leather pants, a leather jacket, and a band tee, and it's motorcycle-chic. Then there are times that it's skinny jeans, a tank top, and a denim jacket. It's whatever I'm feeling that day.
The greatest thing about having done 'Orange' are the doors that have opened for me, and people have been able to see me, like the executives and the casting directors - also, all of the fantastic directors and writers for independent films.
I could live my whole life being so comfortable doing things I've already worked hard to not be nervous at, or I could continue to push the envelope and make myself uncomfortable and learn and see what I'm capable of, and acting is definitely that.
I started making my own short films as a way of being able to give myself something to do and to study my craft.
Because fashion essentially is art, and as an artist and someone who is also a musician and an artist in regards to drawing and painting, anything I can do that expresses my feelings is something I'm really drawn to.
I don't think of myself as a model. I'm genderqueer, and I've got tattoos.
Whether straight, gay, bi, trans... body image and identity can be a struggle for us all.
I have a lot of characteristics that would normally be present in a guy and then less that would be present in a woman.
I used to pray to God that I wouldn't get breasts. Then in my teens, I tried to be quite feminine.
I didn't know there were options like gender neutral or gender fluid. I later realized you could be a girl and dress like a guy.
It sounds cliche, but I'm mostly androgynous in what I wear. I'll wear a lot of tomboy clothes but still dress glam if I have a red carpet event. It's a bit of a mix, but mostly androgynous.
The person I am every single day is the person that's growing and getting better. The more people look up to me, the more important it is to be concise with what message I want to leave. That's where I feel like I'm a role model. Maybe not to everyone, but for a lot of minorities, I am, and I kinda love that - the role model for the underdog.
Being honest about being bullied in school and my bipolar was not so much of a 'do I or don't I?'; it was waiting for the right time. Even before I knew what making a mark on the world meant, I knew I wanted to make a difference.
Never say no to anything, whatever the universe brings me. I've always lived by that.
I experimented with fashion as it being more like art, allowing what I wore to express what I was feeling on the inside. Androgyny, rock culture, and grunge - they definitely had an effect on the things that made me feel cool and comfortable.
My mom is a painter and an artist. She would play music, and she always had very good taste in music, fashion, and art. She was also a young single mom, so I think she had really good style; she was really free... just really inspiring in her own way and allowed me to find the direction I wanted to take in my life.
One thing I noticed when I moved to America, people don't really know about me, so a lot of them question why I look like a boy or dress like a boy, or why I didn't have longer hair, or what's with the tattoos.
My mom has really great skin; my dad has really good skin. I don't feel like I have to do a lot of work in regards to that.
I feel like my style is very much androgynous. It's rock, chic, like casual wear, but then on the flip side to that, being that it's so androgynous, it'll either be skinny jeans and a leather jacket, or if I'm doing a red carpet or event, I'll completely flip that and be wearing a suit or a dress.
I had never binge-watched TV before 'Orange.'
Growing up, I had a very vivid imagination and Leonardo was like my best imaginary friend that I spoke to. When things were tough, or I was scared in an unsafe environment, I always imagined that the Ninja Turtles would come to the rescue.
Gender fluidity is not really feeling like you're at one end of the spectrum or the other. For the most part, I definitely don't identify as any gender. I'm not a guy; I don't really feel like a woman, but obviously I was born one. So, I'm somewhere in the middle, which - in my perfect imagination - is like having the best of both sexes.
As a little kid, I was convinced that I was a guy.
I feel like I'm a boy, but I don't feel like I should've been born with different parts of my body or anything like that. I feel like it's just all in how I dress and how I talk and how I look and feel, and that makes me happy.
My mum used to wear the guys' Chesty Bonds tanks, and I used to end up wearing them after she'd finish with them. She's a painter, and they would be covered in paint splatters. She would wear them and wear them until they were super-soft, and then I'd get them. But I was just a kid, so they were like a dress on me.
All I've wanted to be is someone people look up to. It's funny - everyone says I'm controversial. I've never worked out what it is about me that's controversial. I've never had a DUI; I've never been in a brawl; you've never seen photos of me walking out of clubs at 5 A.M.
Acting is my life. It's what I live and breathe.
Fashion is such a weird thing. Growing up, I just made do with whatever I had access to - a lot of hand-me-downs and thrift store shopping.
When I was young and getting bullied at school and really not feeling like I would amount to much and staying isolated, my mom used to say to me a lot about how you treat people and always having dignity and respect.
When I was younger, I didn't know television presenting was a thing, which is how I totally got my foot in the door. But I didn't really know that was a job. I never really had a TV or watched TV, and I really just wanted to be an actor.
When I booked 'Orange,' I thought things were going to change a little bit, and I'd be a little more busy, but obviously I underestimated it. I don't think anyone knew that my character would be taken to so well.
I think at one point I had 50 or 60 tattoos, but then they all morphed to become a half sleeve and then a full sleeve and then a sleeve with half my hand and then half my back. So I have so many now where I feel like I can get away with saying, 'I have three tattoos.'
I love therapy. I swear by therapy. I couldn't exist without therapy.
I am very gender fluid and feel more like I wake up every day sort of gender neutral. I cop a fair bit of flack for going from 'such a babe to such a boy.'
Between 'Orange' with Laverne, the show 'Transparent,' and Caitlyn Jenner, obviously we're in the middle of something enormous - a transgender movement. I'm just proud to be alive during this massive shift in the world.
I got to host a radio show. I got a clothing range. I was the face of fashion week. I got to do a whole television show with kids.
I started off as an Australian model. I had so many knockbacks, having short hair and being rejected, and I always thought: I'm never gonna get to where I want to get unless I start looking more feminine.
