I'm a little older now and I think I've lightened up a bit as I'm getting older.

When I was young, times were hard. When I got older it was worse.

Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

At 13, I was fearless. I looked at everything so positive. When you're older and been through it all, you know how bad it can get. There is a fear of failing.

When I was younger, I enjoyed being strong, and I loved it when my heart was very strong, but I think it was also about submitting to the cultural idea that if you're a 22-year-old woman, you have to look a certain way. I'm not into that anymore. But I do appreciate it when my clothes fit.

I probably seem quite at ease now saying I’m mixed race, I’m black, I’m Zambian, but for a while that was quite torturous, quite angsty. As a young woman I wasn’t very tender or nice to myself…Now I’m older, I’m much more able to be tender and kind to the younger me that I see in the book.

Now I’m older and a more important player. And while that brings pressure with it, I like it too.

I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older.

But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.

I speak the truth not so much as I want, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.

I definitely like myself more as I grow older, and there’s no way I would want to return to my younger days of people pleasing and uncertainty. But the journey doesn’t end here. I wish to be more courageous, to have the courage to live life more fully, stand up for what I believe in and fight for who I’ll eventually fall in love with.

I was a shy girl, but when I read, I was adventurous. Books made me bolder.

Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.

I speak the truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little more as I grow older.