Rosa Salazar Opens Up About Being A Role Model & Being Comfortable With Herself

Rosa Salazar is on the cover of Marie Claire Malaysia‘s January 2019 issue, out now.

Here’s what the 33-year-old Alita: Battle Angel actress had to say…

On being a role model: “For any young woman who looks up to me as a role model, I just want to say that ‘Look, I came from nothing and I did it, by myself. It was very hard, but I did it, and you can too! You can do it, you really, really can. It’s not just another slogan”

On being enough: “Men and women alike — mostly men — will tell you that you don’t have a voice, or that you are being too much, or too bossy or sassy, and you will need to push these words away. Don’t absorb or entertain that. Because we, as women, are sensitive, that is our gift; we are vulnerable. We have open hearts which also opens us up to bad things as well, so we need to learn not to absorb it. Women internalize these things, and when women hear that, they go ‘how can we be better?’ But sometimes it is not about you being better. Sometimes you need to say, you know what? I am centered within myself. I am comfortable with myself. So, thank you but no thank you.”

On the shift in society: “We [the United States] are supposed to be this, you know, ‘world power’, but we are still dealing with racism, with misogyny…look at the recent #MeToo movement—it took so long for this to come to light. These monsters were operating in plain sight for decades and centuries! This happens everywhere and needs to change. And only with interviews like this, women like us talking, women coming together, young women reading this in your magazine, or seeing Alita: Battle Angel, seeing an empowered woman character, seeing a kick-ass woman character, seeing a Latin girl who comes from nothing rise to this place; these are the things that make a change, that create movements.”

For more from Rosa, head to MarieClaire.com.my.