NewsBreak Original

… Volunteering, to me, is huge. Because you’re not only giving to other people, but you’re really inspiring yourself. So, I co-founded a non-profit, Arrow-Heart Adventure Camps, with my brother, Todd, and I want to continue to build and grow that non-profit. We do outreach for kids between the ages of eight and seventeen, allowing them to think for themselves and create their own belief systems. We’re all so busy learning from our teachers, mentors, and parents that it takes us so long to figure out our belief system. Sometimes, it takes us to reach our forties to really go, “Wait. I don’t believe that. Rather, I believe this because of my life experience!” So, we want to help kids that age create their own belief systems. Of course, you still have to abide by the rules and your parents and things like that! I’m continuing to develop the non-profit.

I’ve been doing this for a long time. The world has changed a lot, and so has our business. I mean, there were only three networks when I began, and television and features were two separate worlds. That sure has changed! One huge positive change has been the increase in diversity. I’m embarrassed and sad to think of how unaware we were decades ago about how underrepresented people of color were in our industry. I applaud that change. I think that women over 50 — maybe even 40 — are still discriminated against. I’m waiting for that to change but not holding my breath.

… I strongly believe in the way I was raised. No one is born prejudiced. No one is born hateful. No one is born to judge. We all come into this world accepting and loving. I have a tremendous number of gay friends and people of color. I think what disappoints me is that we have used the word tolerance for too long. You know, I’m a straight white lady, nobody tolerates me. Everybody’s accepting of me. It’s about learning. It’s about learning, and genuine acceptance; of people whose sexuality is different from yours or someone whose gender might be in the process of changing. I mean, I think it’s about love. And as corny as it is, I think it is really truly about true, deep-down acceptance, and learning to just live the life that we are all in. We all came out of the birth canal, the same way, either through a C-section or other, and I just don’t understand. We need to rethink our world. Our world is very different now. We no longer tolerate this, and rightfully so. We are moving on from sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. We are moving on from all of these things and we must continue. We must continue.