My aunt could never understand how writing could be a full-time job. She'd keep asking when I'd get a real job!
I wouldn't apply myself at school. I was quite bright, but I didn't do much with it, and I thought acting was dressing up and shouting for a living.
I wanted to be an actor my whole young life. My dad was an actor, obviously - he won an Academy Award, but I had no idea what was involved. I had all the wrong ideas about acting.
There's been a myth perpetuated where people think, 'I need to go into consulting, banking, finance, law, or medicine to make a consistently reasonable amount of money.' People are now realizing that's not the case.
I suddenly think the job of acting is a difficult one. It's not as flip, irrelevant and shallow a calling as I thought it was in the Eighties.
Modeling is a job. Even my mum doesn't believe that I do work hard.
The 'problem lies' are the half-dozen or so falsehoods we hear every day that can lead us down the wrong path in our careers, change how we do business, or dramatically influence our personal lives.
Definitely the biggest misconception is that it is overly burdensome to be a woman and pursue this line of work. But being a woman gives me a unique perspective and style, which is probably why I get the work that I do.
No one is born a CEO, but no one tells you that.
So many girls trying to be models, like, 'Oh my god, I want to be a model!' Nobody really knows the reality of it. It's a lot of hard work, but at the same time, it's a lot of fun.
Occasionally there are parents who say, "I brought my child so he or she could learn what the career of a writer is like, and you did this long theatrical performance instead, and I'm very disappointed."
I was quite bright, but I didn't do much with it, and I thought acting was dressing up and shouting for a living - which, of course, it isn't.
A lot of people want to judge the fact that I'm an actor. That's ridiculous. No one knows what I was doing before I made my first movie. I just happened to do it as an actor all the while I've been doing music, but never with the intention to become a screaming famous pop star.
Still uncertain as to our identity, we think that what matters in the work world is gaining attention and making friends. And these misconceptions and naïveté are brutally exposed in the light of the real world.
Many of my students learn different techniques online and I have learnt a lot using this medium. Art is picking up in the Caribbean but it's unfortunate that we still have people looking down on it. Many persons who don't know better think that having a career in art is a waste of time. I guess the public just needs to be educated some more.
Modelling is a bit baffling when you're 18. I just thought, 'Brilliant - I get paid lots of money to walk down a runway.' I didn't think I was signing up to be a poster girl for anything.
