Jonathan Van Ness

I went from being pretty fit to 230 lbs., which isn't, like, the biggest for being 6-feet-tall, but I had been 165 lbs. just three months prior. That taught me a lot about how people treat you differently when you're fit and when you're bigger.

I like people too much. I really do.

I am shocked almost on a daily basis that my being me everywhere I go affects people so deeply.

Podcasts are hard! I mean, you gotta get the microphones and all these things... there's a lot going on there. I never really realized how much goes into producing things till I did 'Gay of Thrones.'

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 think I've been in a lot of really uncomfortable situations, and I think when you're in uncomfortable situations, it kind of polishes you up a little. It shines you up.

I think that the ideal of men's physiques in general, gay or straight, is one of the most under-talked-about things ever. Ninety-five percent of these bodies that we're seeing, that we're striving so hard to look like, are genetically engineered - like, let's be very clear.

I remember saying I wanted to be a cosmetologist when I was really young.

When you're willing to be vulnerable, you can surprise yourself at how strong you can be.

To me, self-care isn't really shallow. Showing up for yourself, putting on a little moisturizer, can inspire so many different parts of your life.

Self-care is the non-negotiable. That's the thing that you have to do. And beauty is the thing that can be the benefit of the self-care. Beauty is not the point. Beauty is just a cute side-effect from self-care.

I used to be pretty hard on myself, like, if I didn't like a haircut I did on someone, I would think about it a lot and second-guess myself. But after therapy and a lot of work, I know how to dust myself off a lot faster, and those things don't knock me down as much as they used to.