“Landing the role of Tootie, I almost didn’t stay for the audition because I was very intimidated, quite honestly. I was a little girl, I was a little black girl, and I walked into this sea of television-ready white girls. The perfect blonde hair or brown eyes, blue eyes. And I just felt like, ‘I’m not supposed to be here.’ And my mother took me to the bathroom and she said, ‘Listen, don’t you let anything or anyone intimidate you, including your own mind.’”