PETRA COLLINS

On film, you really have to focus on what you're looking at. You're imprinting a physical image.

My mother struggled immensely with mental illness, and so did I. She grew up bipolar, but it was never diagnosed nor recognized. It was shrugged off like a 'symptom' of being female - of her being weak. I also experienced this growing up: I felt that the great pain I experienced was a dramatisation.

I think the gender norms of emotion are horrendous. Being masculine means showing zero emotions, but having the choice to be angry or depressed. Being female means you are one dimensional - if you show more than that, you are a psycho, hysterical, or historically, a witch.

I came to New York with no money and just one suitcase. I had my family's emotional support, but they weren't able to help me financially.

I just think it's crazy that we don't think that the youth are valid. They're the ones who really know what's going on.

What's cool is when people send me messages or tag me in their photos, which definitely happens more after a project comes out. The best part, I think, is that the DMs and tags are always from young girls, and reaching them is the most important thing for me.

My style motto is pretty classic: you give off a positive energy when you wear what you're most comfortable in.

I know having a social media profile removed is a 21st century privileged problem - but it is the way a lot of us live. These profiles mimic our physical selves and a lot of the time are even more important. They are ways to connect with an audience, to start discussion, and to create change.

People look the best when they feel the most comfortable, so I buy 10 of the same thing if I really like it.

Oh my God. Brian De Palma. I love him.

I think being collaborative is definitely more natural for people who are minorities in any sense - so people who aren't, like, white male artists - because we don't have the privilege to create art and work alone, usually.

I consider myself endlessly lucky to have access to the Internet and technology. Through it, I've found myself and have been able to join a new discourse of females, young and old, who strive to change the way we look and treat ourselves.

Women's emotions are constantly labeled. Any slight deviation from 'pleasantness,' and we are labeled as hysterical. When we are angry, sad, depressed, or manic, we are immediately seen as unfeminine or ugly or weak.

That's what I look for in models: Someone who can tell a story and has a presence in front of the camera.

We have this weird beauty standard where women, like, shouldn't grow: what we think is feminine is often what is also pre-pubescent.

If your story is being told by someone who doesn't really know it, it's not going to come out accurate. A lot of it has to do with context. Whoever's behind the camera or pen or whatever.

Live what you support online; do things.

When a woman is anything but pleasant, she is labeled as whiny, hysterical, etc.

I wish I didn't think about what my body looks like. It can be done - it's just a long process.

I'm definitely a Sagittarius. I'm such a fire sign.

Just being with a group of girls and experiencing sadness together - it's a pretty powerful thing.

It's so important for women to create images of women - or any group, at that.

Curating, in the modern sense, is something I gravitate to. Taking different ideas from a bunch of different places and putting them into one place or space, a story that makes sense or a new idea. Everything is remixed and taken from other things to make something new.

As a young woman, I was disturbed by the fact that there was no imagery that truly expressed the experience of a young woman and the challenges and turbulence we go through. All we had were teenage magazines like 'Cosmopolitan,' which are very one-sided and show an objectified view of women.

When I do an editorial or when I do a campaign, I bring that lens to every space.