Joan Smalls

“I also work out because I have scoliosis. I have to maintain certain strength in my core.”

“I'd like to see more beauty campaigns for girls who are mixed Latina and black.”

“When you want something so bad and when something great happens, I think it's instinct that you say, 'This is gonna be the moment that's gonna change everything. Everybody is gonna see me a different way.'”

“Fashion is part of our culture, and it's about more than just a pretty dress.”

“I don't want to be on such a strict diet that I don't have fun. So if I eat sweets, I'll just put in more of an effort when I go to the gym.”

“I always use eyelash curlers - always makes you look extra 'woken.'”

“I don't need that much contour.”

“My mom always tells me, 'Joan, you're the brightest star. Embrace your strength and your power when you walk into a room.' So I always have that in me to have that confidence.”

“My personal style is bipolar. Sometimes I feel like dressing in a boyish leather jacket; other times I want to dress more elegantly. Most of the time it's what I like to call 'comfortable chic': Giuseppe Zanotti flat sandals, Rag & Bone jeans, slouchy Isabel Marant shirts.”

“I want to last in my career, and that relies on the way my body performs. So I need to take care of it.”

“I know I'm representing a group - black, Latin, whatever you want to put me with - and I want to show that they are beautiful the way they are. I think that's really important for our youth to see.”

“I would like to pick Rihanna's brain. I love her style and what she does.”

“It always just feels good going back home. It feels like nothing has changed. Seeing my room, the views. It, like, grounds you.”

“I hate being skinny and being a little weakling thing.”

“I would always hunch over, I was always taller than the boys. I had the extremely skinny legs... I would double up my socks, those ones from Footlocker, to make my legs look thicker.”

“When you look at the world, the world isn't just one palette. It's a beautiful rainbow, and why not have someone to represent that rainbow?”

“I was always being athletic, climbing trees and running after boys, just being trouble. It was always in me.”

“I always believe, as a woman, it's powerful to be able to pull your own body weight and be able to defend yourself.”

“My career has always thrived on hard work and good relationships with people I work with and just continuing grinding.”

“I felt most beautiful on the red carpet in Givenchy's sheer lace dress at a dinner hosted by Givenchy in honor of Marina Abramovich at the closing of her Museum of Modern Art retrospective, 'The Artist is Present', in 2010. It was the first time I had been dressed for an event, and everybody just fell in love with the dress.”