I basically became a cheerleader because I had a very strict mom. That was my way of being a bad girl.
Uniqueness was something my mother pounded into me.
People came to my parents' parties because they were going to have fun and, if lucky, our mother would belly dance. What they didn't know was that the hostess made sure every morsel placed in front of them was pure and without anything artificial, no matter what the cost.
I was a brownie for a day. My mom made me stop. She didn't want me to conform.
My mother always told me, 'Don't get married. Make your own life. You don't need a man.'
I was rejected in school because I didn't look like the big-breasted, beautiful girls. I was awkward and sad. My mother always said, "Be original!" but I didn't understand until I changed to be like everyone else.
My mother was ahead of her time as a woman.