A biography for Laurie Hernandezhasn’t been written yet.
“I want to make sure I always show off my smile and have a positive attitude the whole time, whether it's during a performance, practice, or doing an interview.”
“Basically, I was a little bit nervous before competing beam at the Olympics, and I had this nervous thing to just talk to myself, like 'You can do it, you can do it.' And right before I hopped up there, I said, 'I got this.'”
“When you're a little kid, and you're, like, thinking about the Olympics, and you just have this big expectation, it just lived up exactly to that.”
“My first week at 'DWTS' was amazing! I definitely fangirled when I walked into the ballroom because I looked at all the judges and where they were sitting, and I was like, 'Wow, that's the official judges' table!'”
“Having the opportunity to go to the U.S. Olympics was great because I was the first Latina in over 30 years to compete in gymnastics at the Olympics.”
“I knew when I started gymnastics, I wanted to have a lot of fun and eventually go to the Olympics. On the moments where I felt really down, I just remembered, 'You're almost there. Just keep going. Keep working hard.'”
“I love performing for the crowd. Maybe that's what it is. I'm a crowd pleaser.”
“I do like writing. When I was a little kid, I used to love writing funny, silly stories - and my mom would always encourage it. I don't know why I ever stopped!”
“It's kind of like I won a gold medal with my family.”
“Everyone keeps asking me when I have time to rest. I'll tell you when: I get all my sleep on planes. If the flight is five hours, my nap is five hours! I'll sleep through the whole flight.”
“Homeschooling is great because it's extremely lenient, and so if there's a day I come home from practice and mentally, I'm just exhausted, I can actually just save the test for the next day if I really have to.”
“The first meal that I learned to make was scrambled eggs.”
“When I came home after 'DWTS,' I had a couple of days, and I had actually given the Mirrorball to my mom. She loves to decorate the house, so I said, 'Here - make it pretty. Do what you want with it!”
“As far as cartoons go, I watched a lot of 'Ed, Edd, n Eddy' when I was a kid.”
“People have always asked me why my favorite event was floor, and my answer was always, 'Because I love to dance!'”
“I would love to be an actress!”
“If I could go anywhere, I'd love to visit Greece someday because it looks so beautiful, and I'd also love to go to Mexico.”
“Meeting kids who feel inspired by my story, it means so much to me.”
“Don't let people tell you that you can't do something.”