"God always has a way to reward you and that’s how I live. And if everything I did was for money, I wouldn’t be here today doing this interview because you would have to pay me."

"I listen to Whitney Houston, Ntokozo Mbambo and Tasha Cobbs. If you listen to their ranges, they are very high. I practice with them. I love their music, I love their voice"

"We are all serving the same Ghana as the male players and coaches."

"When I have the ball, she knows what I'll do next."

"The Black Queens were the first team to represent the country at the world cup level but the kind of treatment and promotion we get from Ghanaians especially the media is on the low side."

"We want to qualify for the semi-finals without any doubt and that will mean winning. Besides, we want to keep our unbeated record so far."

"Whenever I’m listening to Radio and watching TV, I hear how they(the media) promote and fight for the Black Stars and other Men’s national teams at the expense of we the Female teams which shouldn’t be the case."

"Why can't female players and coaches be celebrated as well?"

"Naturally, we want to win the tournament because it would feel very good [to do do] at home, but we can only focus on it one game at a time."

"I have believed and very confident we can make mother Ghana proud when the competition begins."

"We have come close many times so there we are not far off at all."

"We as host nation have a big task to win the sompetition as well but is not going to come easy."

"I must remain true to my values: respect, dignity, excellence, and equal opportunity the strongest pillars that guide me"

"Now that I’m growing older, I find that my source of power comes from my identity and ethnicity"

"I thought a lot about the concept of cultural dysphoria, and how that can shape how people relate to the world,"

"I witnessed firsthand that I was capable of accomplishing great things despite adversity"

"It’s sometimes sad and disheartening how the people of Ghana especially the media have just neglected us and say nothing about our teams."

"This year's tournament is not going to be easy, everything that will be participarting will be coming for the ultimate."

"We have a unique voice because we grow up with the ability to empathize. We constantly have to do the work of placing ourselves in other people’s shoes"

"I noticed that whenever I was trying to talk about social justice and how Black women are framed in the media, quite ironically, I would be framed in a certain way that would demonize me and take away the value of my point"

"I think as a queer person, kind of everything I do in the public sphere is drag in some capacity"

"Though the intentions are generally excellent with respect to giving a voice to those who were too long silenced, the movements that came before us, in the past, perhaps had more weight"

"you might say that culture has become more inclusive, that inequalities and prejudice seem to be slowly retreating, and that things which were once considered normal and acceptable are now deemed to be inappropriate"

"our collective relationship to the truth has become far more chaotic.”"

"Whenever Black women have a point, they’re characterized as Angry Black Women, and therefore the thing they’re talking about is no longer of importance because they have to deal with them being overly emotional or something."

"I don’t particularly like putting forward an image of myself that’s too true to reality"

"Now you can go on Instagram and you can see a girl who looks like you who is killing the game and expressing herself. Just being able to see that is so affirming"

"Being an actor is one of the few professions where, as an adult, you get to play!"

"I often find myself in situations where I am the token black person"

"when people come to me and say, “I’m more comfortable in my identity because of you,” or “I feel like you’ve given me a voice,” that’s the most powerful thing ever."

"But I’m not tired of talking about hair in the sense of it being an empowering thing. I know when I used to chemically straighten mine, I did it because I wasn’t comfortable with my natural hair. I thought it was too poofy, too kinky. So for me, personally, when I started wearing it natural, it felt like I was blossoming because I was letting go of all the dead hair and all the parts of me that had rejected my natural state."

"I’m not sure if social-media activism serves the cause in the long term"

"I recognize that people who respond negatively to what I have to say aren’t at a place yet where they are able to learn"

"Social media really shaped me and my generation and our ability to organize or express our thoughts"

"I have always had and continue to have a lot of disillusionment around social media, particularly now"

"A lot of my adolescence was defined by being here. I feel like the first time I really experienced freedom and autonomy was here, so I think I probably fell in love with New York and knew it was the place I wanted to live when I was 15 or 16. Then I had a series of unsuccessful attempts to move here that were thwarted by different things"

"It wasn’t until I started living in other places that I realized that growing up with the backdrop of a mountainscape is not everyone’s experience"

"feel really disheartened by the fact that there’s no infrastructure legislation to control and mitigate the amount of manipulation that is occurring toward the public by these private organizations and corporations who just want to make money off us and control our thoughts."

"The line between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange is always going to be blurry"

"I think already, at age 12, I was like, Yeah, people are racist. Why are y’all surprised?"

"When I reflect on it, I don’t remember being very upset about it. I remember feeling that I don’t give a flying f**k what these racist people think of me. I think bigots don’t really bother me"

"I don’t think there’s ever been a moment where I’ve thought social media is not for me, because I’m obsessed with social media. I have three meme accounts!"

"The biggest legacy I want to leave behind is how much I loved and was loved by my tribe"

"Sometimes I feel a little odd because no one in my life shares the same experiences that I do, but I hope that through my artistry I’m able to help people feel less alone in their feelings of weirdness or ‘too-much-ness"

"I think, honestly, growing up was the biggest role I could have taken"

"I think having the creative outlet to express myself at a young age shaped me into the woman I am today"

"For us child actors, it can be really difficult to transition to adult material"

"WE ALL GET THE SAME 24 HOURS IN A DAY, JUST GO OUT THERE AND BE GREAT—WHATEVER THAT IS. BE GOOD AT WHAT YOU DO, AND STRIVE TO BE BETTER"

"I just want to be free and creative until I can’t be anymore!"

"I think stand-up is all controversial anyway and that's kind of the point of stand-up comedians is to be offensive and be weird and have opinions"