I Do A Movie Once Every Four

Coming From The '50s, Things Were Very Violent.

My People Were Homesteading In Colorado Before Emancipation.

Me And My Sisters Were Taught That If Our Eyes Worked And Our Legs Worked, We Were Beautiful. We Had So Many Kids In Our Family That If We All Got In Front Of The Mirror And Were Ashamed Of Browns And Golds And Yellows And Whites, And We Believed What Society Told Us - That The Darker People Were Less Attractive And The Lighter Ones Were Prettier - We Would Have Had Sibling Murders. My Family, Being Half-rural And Half-military, Just Came From A Different Place.

I Really Hate To See Abusive Behavior Being Passed On From Generation To Generation To Generation, When We Have Access To Health And Counseling.

I Never Went In Thinking, "you're An African-american Woman, So You're Never Going To Win." I Was Just In Career Doing Beauty Pageants For The Experience, And To Show My Brains And Talent And Help Break Stereotypes. It Wasn't Like, "oh, I'll Become A Star. I'm Beautiful." I Never Thought I Was Pretty. I Couldn't Even Put On Eyelashes Or Makeup. When You Come From An Environment That's Military, And They Don't Stress That Topic Of Aesthetics Or Beauty Pageants And Makeup, There Are A Lot Of Things You Just Don't Have That City Girls Have.