As an adolescent, I was painfully shy, withdrawn. I didn't really have the nerve to sing my songs on stage, and nobody else was doing them. I decided to do them in disguise so that I didn't have to actually go through the humiliation of going on stage and being myself.
I try to associate myself as just being myself - and being a person, an American citizen, going out there every day and just trying to be successful.
I wanted to support things that are helpful to people and maybe bash what I think is dangerous. So I switched from being everybody to being myself.
I'm happy being myself, which I've never been before. I always hid in other people, or tried to find myself through the characters, or live out their lives, but I didn't have those things in mine.
I would classify myself as an individual. That's what I try to stay true with - being myself, 100 percent.
Whenever anyone says I've taught them things by me being myself, I'm always like, 'Really? I just thought that was like, Wednesday for me. I was just wearing a kilt and a sleeveless top in a Rotary Club, it wasn't that big of a deal.'
I don't follow other players or the tournaments they play. I have my own schedule and do my own thing. I never really think, 'Oh, I want to be or play like so-and-so.' I just like being myself.
But, by just being myself, I end up touching a lot more people who might never have paid much attention to a female rapper.
I don't mind being called a weirdo. There are a lot of people in hip-hop who are probably never going to get what I do. But, by just being myself, I end up touching a lot more people who might never have paid much attention to a female rapper.
Interestingly, I matured as a musician and as an artist before I matured as a man. What I mean by that is, I was ready to be completely vulnerable and honest with myself and unapologetic when it comes to how I express myself in my medium. But I wasn't as secure in doing that when it came to just being myself.
Before I created Christine, I was actually really girly. Maybe I was trying to hide something, but I was trying too hard to be a girl, and I didn't know what it meant. I was afraid of being myself.
When I was 19 or 20 and doing my thing, I can't sit here and say I had this strong political agenda - I was literally just being myself.
I'm quite happy being myself. I'm a big fan of Jessica Lange and Jeanne Moreau, but I don't want to be anyone else.
Being real in pro wrestling has paid off. Just being myself - that really translated to the fans.
When it comes to fitting in, I think I'm really fly. It's not really hard; I'm just being myself.
I'll never be Jennifer Lawrence or Tom Cruise, someone who can hold a movie and then be charming and charismatic doing promotion. I haven't got what they've got. But at least I'm now comfortable just being myself.
I feel more and more like 'myself' these days. Before becoming a father, I can remember a low-level feeling of somehow not quite being myself.
When I'm trusting and being myself as fully as possible, everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously.
I was both loved and hated for being upfront. But I was just being myself.
