life in black and white

Your pain, your happiness, your grief are all part of who you are. This idea that we should always be happy is probably setting us back: often in life, we don’t take our pain seriously, as a way of coping, but it’s obviously there and you have to examine it.

leighton meester by kurt iswarienko photoshoot 2018

“Growing up, I wasn’t really that into Star Wars. My mom tried to play it for me, and I sat down and she put it on. And, honestly, my first reaction was, ‘this is too loud!’ And so, I ran out of the room. I was like six years old. She’s like, ‘Please, you have to watch this movie! I’m in it, it’s really cool, there’s like a lot of action. You’ll think I’m a cool mom now!’”

When I went to middle school it got kind of awkward because I didn’t realize my mom was a big sex icon until I got to middle school. Then the boys started coming up to me and saying, “I think your mom is the hottest woman ever.” And at first I went in the corner and cried about it and was like really hurt, but then I came back at them. When they said it again the next day I was like, “Yea, me too.” And then they thought I was as creepy as they were.

‘I feel like there are so many people I admire for so many reasons that I can’t look at one person’s life and say, “I want that life.” I want to make my own history.’

Rihanna for Harper’s Baazar

No matter what I’ve endured in the past, what I’ve put myself through, or what others have done to me, I have the ability and the will to move forward. I will not give up. I will not undervalue or underestimate my capabilities.

Aubrey Plaza for The Cut, August 2017

Elle Fanning for L'Oreal Paris Makeup, 2017

Laura Dern for Porter Magazine, December 2017

Emily Blunt for Vogue, November 2016

"I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights."