I grew up in the late ’90s with the life that most people would dream about as a kid. My house was a few blocks from the best beaches...

Before I begin, let me tell you a few things about me... I’m a gender queer actor who loves to sing, dance, and shatter stereotypes.

Well, let me start my story with a parable: “There once was a very small girl whose mother asked her to fill up a barren valley with water..

When looking back at those days, I marvel at how far I have come. Maybe it was luck. Maybe it was desperation. Maybe I will never find out..

In the year of my birth, 1952, our desolate Texas prairie lured only the wildcatter oil tycoons from the east coast and the hardworking...

If uninterrupted, I could talk to you about optics (which is the study of light and its properties) for the rest of my life...

I think I realized early on that I could either be really bitter about it, or I could gain a lot of really great life skills...

I could have easily had a very normal life, had a 9-to-5 job, live paycheck-to-paycheck, and dream of big things without acting...

I was the only girl in my family and had three older brothers. My mom was a teacher and my dad worked in communications...

Addiction isn’t picky. Trust me. You can come from family dinners and a good education and still fall into dependence. I sure as hell did...

I grew up in Pune, India, in a middle-class family. My parents had corporate jobs and worked from early morning to late evening to provide..

The country of my mother tongue, my family, a great deal of my childhood, and my culture actually isn’t where I was born...

Back then, there were no doctors and nurses, at least, not the way we think of them today. Only midwives delivered babies...

More to get him to shut up than anything else, I walked to the sliding glass doors. I’ll be damned. Two dudes were climbing the fence...

Miami was sleepy in the ‘50s—nothing like the bustling buildings and energy it has now. When my family moved across town...

Growing up in a very strict Christian family, I was expected to settle down and start a family. As I waited for Mr. Right...

People used to look at me and see nothing more than an addict who couldn’t keep a needle out of her arm long enough to...

Even now I’m still stunned when I think of the way it all went so fantastically to hell in front of my eyes...

You never think it’s going to be you until it is. And then it is...

But what I wish I didn’t remember— what I wish I forgot so completely—was my father’s drinking. My father’s hands as they beat me...