Sometimes when my mom finds a fun article and really wants me to read it, I will. But I prefer to just kind of focus on what I want to do and not really what other people are saying, because I don't want that to affect me too much.
My mom and dad put my brother and sister through university and they were very keen for us to have an academic background just to give us a chance.
I had really great parents who always gave me lots of opportunity for choice, but I didn't always realize how rare that was for a girl for them to say, 'You can be a mom or have a career or do both or do something we haven't thought of yet.'
You eat and sleep it all day long and play on the streets until mom calls you in. My story is no different than anybody else's.
When you become a mom you just learn how to function sleep deprived and you do get used to it. I came back to work when Finley was three months old and the first few months were rough. Then somehow you learn to exist on no sleep and now when he does upon occasion sleep through the night, which is like a full six hours, you're pretty sure he's suffocating. So you don't sleep anyway.
My Mom is a ballet director, so I had this idea in me that classical training is the best foundation for anything you do, so I wanted to get a classical background and voice.
Everyone in my family is an artist. Both my parents are painters and my mom's an opera singer. I was never shown any other way to process life.
I think I'm going to spend some time learning how to be a first-time mom, and then I'll go back to work.
Growing up I always shopped at Victoria's Secret with my mom and saw Angels like Gisele and Karolina Kurkova in the windows.
When I was young, I had two older sisters, and since I was the youngest in my family, my mom took me around with her all the time. I was forever with her when she was having coffee in the middle of the afternoon with her three sisters. And they would talk about men. I absorbed a lot of that.
My earliest memory is seeing Michael Jackson in Melbourne with my sister when I was about ten. I still have this souvenir stick with a glove that would light up and make a peace sign in a bunch of different colors. I'm so happy my mom didn't throw that out.
I was born to a Nigerian dad and a Kenyan mom, and coming to the States was really academic.
They very seldom let me lose my cool. They made me like I was Polly Perfect, which was ridiculous so that when I bump into kids on the street they'd say 'I wish my Mom were like you.'
I'm a '70s mom, and my daughter is a '90s mom. I know a lot of women my age who are real computer freaks.
My mom was a professional fitness competitor, so I go into the gym with her. I train with my dad and mother. It's embarrassing, because she's really strong.
Part of the reason that I moved to Los Angeles is that even though my mom introduced me to all kinds of music, I really wanted to work on having my own identify, on being who I am and doing what I do, and seeing how people responded.
I'm extremely blessed to have the extraordinary mother that I have, and I don't mean Diana Ross, I mean the mother. My mom paved a road that didn't exist, as did Oprah.
My mom taught me to go after my dreams. I have this faith in myself that I must have gotten from her.
Because of my unique experience as my mom's child, the beginning of my journey was more about me trying to figure out who I was on my own. My mom is one of the greatest moms and so supportive of all my siblings and of all of us being who we are, and not who she wanted us to be.
I've been acting my whole life. I have this huge imagination! I'm a dancer and my mom's a dance teacher, and I was always performing and entertaining people. I'd go to see live theatre or a movie, and I'd become the main character for a few days afterwards. I loved being somebody new for a temporary amount of time.
So, from a very young age, my mom tells me that I wanted to be Michael J. Fox. I didn't want to be an actor. I just wanted to be Michael J. Fox for awhile. And then, I realized that he was an actor, so I pursued that.
When I was seven, I asked my mom if I could be on TV, and she said if I really wanted to, I could. I got an agent and booked my first audition.
My mom came from such humble beginnings and especially my dad as well. He didn't go to university.
Well, Mom and Dad are both actors, and I've spent a lot of time watching my mom on stage and a lot of time on set with my dad, so it was very much a part of my growing up.
I always was drawn to the performing arts. I started dancing when I was two. I sang, loved to act, and loved going to visit my mom on-set. But she wanted me to have a normal childhood, so I wasn't really allowed to pursue acting till I got older.
My mom is a really good cook. I didn't get the cooking gene, but she cooks this really amazing dinner every Christmas, and that's always really fun.
Last time I spoke to my mom she called me from a pay phone, and we didn't have the best talk. Ever since my stepdad passed away three years ago, she has been very depressed and hasn't been herself at all.
I love getting my nails done. My mom's best friend is a manicurist. When I was little, she'd do little paintings on my nails, like flowers.
We've always loved going to the movies. Our mom and dad are big movie fans. They'd take us on these movie orgys where we'd see sometimes three movies in a day.
I've been drawing my whole life. My mom says my sister and I were drawing by age 1. Animation seems a real, natural extension of drawing as a way of telling a story visually.
Anyone who knows me knows my mom, Dorcina, has to sign off on any decision and that she will play a major part in any decision.
Then you've got Georgetown, and I really just like everything about them. When I went down there with my mom, it really opened my eyes to what they were all about. I have to factor in what a school like that can do for me, even away from being a basketball player.
I love what I do and I think it shows. As my kids get older, they can see me as a mom who loves working.
I was fortunate enough to have my kids early, so being a mom always ended up being a better gig than these other parts that came along. So I always justified not really working a lot because I had a family.
When you have lost people like I lost my birth mom at a young age and you remember the whole process of losing her, you want to grab on to something that makes you whole.
At first I could not believe what I was reading. I got up from my seat and walked away, talking to myself that I may have found my mom.
Our songs touch people, and take them back to a time when there was no threat of terrorism, when you didn't have to lock your doors and when Mom and Dad took care of everything.
Whether it's a 16-year old girl, or a mom, or a guy, or anybody, as long as they come up and they're excited to meet me 'cause they've had some sort of relationship with something I've created, it's the coolest thing ever. It never gets old. It's awesome.
My mom is in the navy and my dad works for the army, but I never called them 'sir' or 'ma'am' or anything like that, and we never really moved around a lot because both my parents were stationed in D.C.