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.

I wanted to show girls it's not bad to be dark, that different is beautiful.

For me, the toughest thing for kids to deal with is when the parents are fighting. It's not violence on them - it's the feeling of violence in the family.

The point of being at home is to be with my family as much as possible.

I sometimes wonder if the tragedies my family has suffered are a kind of karmic price for all the fame and fortune the Bee Gees have had.

The Crosby family is sort of legendary for all of its traumas and familial problems, even though it has this appearance of being this perfect world. It had quite a dark side to it.