Lupita Nyong'o: I loved make-believe. I was the child in the cupboard...

What I will say is that what I have learned for myself is that I don’t have to be anybody else; and that myself is good enough; and that when I am being true to that self, then I can avail myself to extraordinary thingsYou have to allow for the impossible to be possible.

Lupita Nyong'o

good-enough self impossible

You can't eat beauty, it doesn't sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion, for yourself and those around you. That kind of beauty inflamed the heart and merchants the soul.

Lupita Nyong'o

compassion heart beautiful

No matter where you're from, your dreams are valid.

Lupita Nyong'o

suicide motivational inspirational

What I've learned from myself is that I don't have to be anybody else. Myself is good enough.

Lupita Nyong'o

ive-learned good-enough enough

You fail, and then what? Life goes on. It's only when you risk failure that you discover things.

Lupita Nyong'o

badass women risk

Every time I overcome an obstacle, it feels like success. Sometimes the biggest ones are in our head - the saboteurs that tell us we can't.

Lupita Nyong'o

obstacles saboteurs overcoming

I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be.

Lupita Nyong'o

i-realized acquire

What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion: for yourself and for those around you.

Lupita Nyong'o

compassion-for-yourself compassion beautiful

We don't get to pick the genes we want. There's room in this world for beauty to be diverse.

Lupita Nyong'o

want rooms world

You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.

Lupita Nyong'o

impossible

There is no shame in black beauty.

Lupita Nyong'o

black-beauty shame black

When I was in the second grade, one of my teachers said, "Where are you going to find a husband? How are you going to find someone darker than you?" I was mortified. I remember seeing a commercial where a woman goes for an interview and doesn't get the job. Then she puts a cream on her face to lighten her skin, and she gets the job! This is the message: that dark skin is unacceptable. I definitely wasn't hearing this from my immediate family - my mother never said anything to that effect - but the voices from the television are usually much louder than the voices of your parents.

Lupita Nyong'o

mother teacher jobs

I come from a loving, supportive family, and my mother taught me that there are more valuable ways to achieve beauty than just through your external features. She was focused on compassion and respect, and those are the things that ended up translating to me as beauty.

Lupita Nyong'o

supportive compassion mother

I love color. I'm enjoying trying all different shades. Makeup isn't something I've worn a lot of in my life.

Lupita Nyong'o

makeup different trying

[My mother] always said I was beautiful and I finally believed her at some point.

Lupita Nyong'o

mom inspiring beautiful

To be human is to seek perfection, and find joy in never attaining it.

Lupita Nyong'o

perfection joy

I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.

Lupita Nyong'o

pain feelings joy

I've worked hard to feel beautiful in my natural skin. Personally, I don't ever want to depend on makeup to feel beautiful.

Lupita Nyong'o

makeup skins beautiful

I feel privileged that people are looking up to me and perhaps a dream will be born because of my presence.

Lupita Nyong'o

born dream people

That you will feel the validation of your external beauty but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside. There is no shade in that beauty.

Lupita Nyong'o

validation shade beautiful

I loved make-believe. I was the child in the cupboard playing with my Barbies.