11. Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model (subtitles)

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Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

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Hi. My name is Cameron Russell,

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and for the last little while, I've been a model.

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Actually, for 10 years.

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And I feel like

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there's an uncomfortable tension in the room right now

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because I should not have worn this dress.

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(Laughter)

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So luckily, I brought an outfit change.

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This is the first outfit change on the TED stage,

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so you guys are pretty lucky to witness it, I think.

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If some of the women were really horrified when I came out,

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you don't have to tell me now, but I'll find out later on Twitter.

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(Laughter)

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I'd also note that I'm quite privileged

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to be able to transform what you think of me

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in a very brief 10 seconds.

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Not everybody gets to do that.

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These heels are very uncomfortable, so good thing I wasn't going to wear them.

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The worst part is putting this sweater over my head,

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because that's when you'll all laugh at me,

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so don't do anything while it's over my head.

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All right.

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So, why did I do that?

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That was awkward.

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(Laughter)

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Well --

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(Laughter)

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Hopefully not as awkward as that picture.

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Image is powerful,

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but also, image is superficial.

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I just totally transformed what you thought of me, in six seconds.

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And in this picture,

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I had actually never had a boyfriend in real life.

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I was totally uncomfortable,

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and the photographer was telling me to arch my back

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and put my hand in that guy's hair.

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And of course, barring surgery,

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or the fake tan that I got two days ago for work,

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there's very little that we can do to transform how we look,

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and how we look, though it is superficial and immutable,

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has a huge impact on our lives.

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So today, for me, being fearless means being honest.

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And I am on this stage because I am a model.

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I am on this stage because I am a pretty, white woman,

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and in my industry, we call that a sexy girl.

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I'm going to answer the questions that people always ask me,

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but with an honest twist.

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So the first question is, how do you become a model?

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I always just say, "Oh, I was scouted,"

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but that means nothing.

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The real way that I became a model

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is I won a genetic lottery, and I am the recipient of a legacy,

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and maybe you're wondering what is a legacy.

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Well, for the past few centuries

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we have defined beauty not just as health and youth

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and symmetry that we're biologically programmed to admire,

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but also as tall, slender figures,

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and femininity and white skin.

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And this is a legacy that was built for me,

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and it's a legacy that I've been cashing out on.

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And I know there are people in the audience

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who are skeptical at this point,

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and maybe there are some fashionistas who are like,

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"Wait. Naomi. Tyra. Joan Smalls. Liu Wen."

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And first, I commend you on your model knowledge. Very impressive.

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(Laughter)

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But unfortunately, I have to inform you that in 2007,

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a very inspired NYU Ph.D. student

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counted all the models on the runway, every single one that was hired,

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and of the 677 models that were hired,

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only 27, or less than four percent, were non-white.

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The next question people always ask is,

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"Can I be a model when I grow up?"

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And the first answer is, "I don't know, they don't put me in charge of that."

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But the second answer,

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and what I really want to say to these little girls is,

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"Why? You know? You can be anything.

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You could be the President of the United States,

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or the inventor of the next Internet,

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or a ninja cardiothoracic surgeon poet,

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which would be awesome, because you'd be the first one."

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(Laughter)

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If, after this amazing list, they still are like,

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"No, no, Cameron, I want to be a model,"

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well, then I say, "Be my boss."

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Because I'm not in charge of anything,

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and you could be the editor in chief of American Vogue

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or the CEO of H&M, or the next Steven Meisel.

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Saying that you want to be a model when you grow up

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is akin to saying that you want to win the Powerball when you grow up.

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It's out of your control, and it's awesome,

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and it's not a career path.

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I will demonstrate for you now 10 years of accumulated model knowledge,

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because unlike cardiothoracic surgeons,

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it can just be distilled right now.

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So, if the photographer is right there,

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the light is right there, like a nice HMI,

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and the client says, "We want a walking shot,"

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this leg goes first, nice and long, this arm goes back, this arm goes forward,

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the head is at three quarters, and you just go back and forth,

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just do that, and then you look back at your imaginary friends,

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300, 400, 500 times.

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(Laughter)

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It will look something like this.

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(Laughter)

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Hopefully less awkward than that one in the middle.

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That was -- I don't know what happened there.

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Unfortunately, after you've gone to school,

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and you have a résumé and you've done a few jobs,

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you can't say anything anymore,

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so if you say you want to be the President of the United States,

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but your résumé reads, "Underwear Model: 10 years,"

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people give you a funny look.

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The next question is, "Do they retouch all the photos?"

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And yeah, they pretty much retouch all the photos,

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but that is only a small component of what's happening.

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This picture is the very first picture that I ever took,

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and it's also the very first time that I had worn a bikini,

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and I didn't even have my period yet.

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I know we're getting personal, but I was a young girl.

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This is what I looked like with my grandma just a few months earlier.

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Here's me on the same day as this shoot.

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My friend got to come.

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Here's me at a slumber party a few days before I shot French Vogue.

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Here's me on the soccer team and in V Magazine.

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And here's me today.

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And I hope what you're seeing

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is that these pictures are not pictures of me.

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They are constructions,

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and they are constructions by a group of professionals,

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by hairstylists and makeup artists and photographers and stylists

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and all of their assistants and pre-production and post-production,

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and they build this.

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That's not me.

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Okay, so the next question people always ask me is,

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"Do you get free stuff?"

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(Laughter)

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I do have too many 8-inch heels which I never get to wear,

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except for earlier,

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but the free stuff that I get is the free stuff that I get in real life,

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and that's what we don't like to talk about.

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I grew up in Cambridge,

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and one time I went in o a store and I forgot my money

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and they gave me the dress for free.

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When I was a teenager, I was driving with my friend

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who was an awful driver and she ran a red and of course,

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we got pulled over,

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and all it took was a "Sorry, officer," and we were on our way.

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And I got these free things because of how I look,

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not who I am, and there are people paying a cost

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for how they look and not who they are.

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I live in New York, and last year,

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of the 140,000 teenagers that were stopped and frisked,

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86% of them were black and Latino, and most of them were young men.

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And there are only 177,000 young black and Latino men in New York,

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so for them, it's not a question of, "Will I get stopped?"

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but "How many times will I get stopped? When will I get stopped?"

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When I was researching this talk,

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I found out that of the 13-year-old girls in the United States,

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53% don't like their bodies,

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and that number goes to 78% by the time that they're 17.

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So, the last question people ask me is,

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"What is it like to be a model?"

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And I think the answer that they're looking for is,

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"If you are a little bit skinnier and you have shinier hair,

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you will be so happy and fabulous."

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And when we're backstage,

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we give an answer that maybe makes it seem like that.

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We say, "It's really amazing to travel, and it's amazing to get to work

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with creative, inspired, passionate people."

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And those things are true, but they're only one half of the story,

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because the thing that we never say on camera,

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that I have never said on camera, is,

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"I am insecure."

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And I'm insecure because I have to think about what I look like every day.

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And if you ever are wondering,

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"If I have thinner thighs and shinier hair, will I be happier?"

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you just need to meet a group of models,

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because they have the thinnest thighs, the shiniest hair and the coolest clothes,

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and they're the most physically insecure women probably on the planet.

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When I was writing this talk,

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I found it very difficult to strike an honest balance,

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because on the one hand,

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I felt very uncomfortable to come out here and say,

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"Look I've received all these benefits from a deck stacked in my favor,"

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and it also felt really uncomfortable to follow that up with,

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"and it doesn't always make me happy."

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But mostly it was difficult to unpack a legacy of gender and racial oppression

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when I am one of the biggest beneficiaries.

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But I'm also happy and honored to be up here

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and I think that it's great that I got to come

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before 10 or 20 or 30 years had passed and I'd had more agency in my career,

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because maybe then I wouldn't tell the story of how I got my first job,

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or maybe I wouldn't tell the story of how I paid for college,

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which seems so important right now.

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If there's a takeaway to this talk,

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I hope it's that we all feel more comfortable acknowledging

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the power of image in our perceived successes

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and our perceived failures.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)