Many know her from her breakout role in Orange is the New Black, but what some might not know about Danielle Brooks is how her home life has influenced her work, that she attended Juilliard and how accepting who she is and how she looks has changed her life for the better.
Danielle, who plays Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson on the Netflix original series, graduated from Juilliard in 2011 and went on to take parts in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Servant of Two Masters and Blacken the Bubble.
Just like her character Taystee, Danielle seems to have a strong sense of self that she perhaps gets from her parents. Growing up in South Carolina with her minister father and deacon mother gave her a desire to live up to her moral standards. In September 2013, she spoke with Ebony magazine about the issue.
“I think at first it is very difficult because you just want to work. So sometimes you feel like, ‘Well maybe I can compromise what my morals are.’ Luckily because of my background and because of my parents and the way they raised me, and the team I have, they all are helping me to realize that it’s OK to say ‘no’ to projects.”
But just because she has the opportunities to turn down projects doesn’t mean her newfound fame will be changing her outlook on life anytime soon.
“[Fame has] definitely challenged me to stay grounded and humble—which I will never not do—and [to] stay grateful,” Danielle told Ebony magazine. “I’m very grateful for my fans, which is so weird to say now. A lot of Black women come up to me and say they’re happy to see someone like myself with natural hair and dark skin and who is my size. It’s just cool.”
But aside from making headlines for her role, she also has been talking about how she overcame obstacles and learned to love her body.
She recently took to Glamour magazine to share her inspiring self-acceptance story. Danielle said when she was younger she struggled the most with accepting the way she looked.
“The world saw a young teenage girl who was happy in her skin, laughed a lot, and didn’t care what anyone thought about her,” she wrote in the magazine. “The truth of the matter was I wasn’t happy in my skin; I laughed to hide my pain, and cared deeply what my peers thought of my appearance—to the point that I even was having suicidal thoughts. But you wouldn’t have known it.”
In one of the most inspiring parts about her essay, she shared that she wants to be a role model for people who feel the same way she did. She wants to give girls an idea of beauty that’s not always portrayed in the media.
“Attending the Golden Globes for the first time, I was aware that the majority of the other actresses in the audience didn’t look like me,” she wrote in Glamour. “But you see, the average woman is a size 12 to 14. Those actresses don’t look like most women. I’m not saying those actresses should gain 30 pounds, but I am posing the question, that if art is supposed to reflect life then why don’t the red carpets and magazines reflect reality?”
Danielle’s career has just begun, but there’s no doubt she will be around for a long time to come. From speaking her mind to expressing herself through her characters, Danielle has made a name for herself. We can’t wait to see where her career goes.
Orange is the New Black returns to Netflix on June 12.
Feature Photo via We Heart It
