My very first account was @BlackBarbie, which is what my friends called me growing up. Then I thought, 'You can either call yourself that, or you can find something that will matter to dark-skinned girls.' So I came up with @melaniin.goddess.

I was teased a lot, growing up, because of my skin tone.

I was born in Senegal in 1996. My mom moved to New York when I was two years old, so I was raised by my aunt back home.

Kids used to tease me and call me 'fille des etoiles,' which translates to 'daughter of the stars.'

From the first time I read John Krakauer's book 'Into Thin Air' in the early 2000s, I always thought this great adventure story would make a really good film. It has all the ingredients - a great location, disaster, interesting characters, and all forms of human emotion.

Patrick Swayze is a fantastic man and an inspiration to work with. He is a fearless cowboy type and a movie icon.

I think the original 'Queer Eye' definitely started us on the journey to normalize the LGBT community and make people realize that we are just people just like everyone else. It started the road to acceptance.

My mother wanted to be an actress. She wanted to follow her dreams, and she never really got a chance to do that. I feel like I'm following her dream in a way.