(logo wooshing)
(hinge squeaking)
(upbeat music)
- So today, we're getting transformed into our idols.
- I think having female role models is extremely
important for young girls.
- Oh, it's so powerful.
It's so important.
Being able to see yourself represented,
honestly, it just opens up this whole world
of what you believe that you can do.
- You're one person right?
And you look at yourself and you're like there's
no way I can do any of the things that I want to do
and then you see people that you admire,
people that you relate to.
You sort of say, hey, I can do that too, I can.
- I think it's so, so important to give credit
to our female role models and the women
who shaped us and inspired us
and remember them for how fucking awesome they were
and still are and will be.
- So today I chose to be
transformed into Tracee Ellis Ross.
She's so unapologetic in her whole aesthetic
and her personality it's sort of just like
what you see is what you get,
take it or leave it.
One of my favorite quotes from Tracee Ellis Ross was
in an interview when she was talking about
when she was like auditioning for parts
and getting hired for certain roles and she said,
"If you hire me, you hire my hair and you hire my ass.
"It's all coming with me."
And she's just sort of like bam, here I am.
I'm amazing inside of my skin and outside of my skin
and take me as I am.
- Once I actually was made aware of Selena,
I was like oh my God, she kind of looks like me,
that's amazing.
Selen-ify me.
- Seeing how unapologetically Mexican she was,
was so empowering to me.
It's crazy to me how bold she was able to be
at such a young age.
Not only was she bold and powerful in who she was,
her identity, but she was bold and powerful with her
fashion sense, with her business sense, and just her talent.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show
that means a lot to me.
I watched it when I was probably about 19.
So I was a little bit older and I really connected to it
just 'cause it's an like amazing, fantastic story
with really strong characters and it's all,
they're all Asian which is like that's dope.
But the reason I love Toph so much
is because Toph is just like a fucking bad-ass
and she's probably the only like young girl character that
I had ever seen on TV that I actually really related to.
I mean she's just kind of like a little brat.
She's just super smart, she's super sarcastic,
she's just like, she doesn't take shit from anybody
and she's also incredibly strong.
She's like the strongest fighter in that show.
- As I grew older, Lucille Ball became someone
who's existence I was extremely thankful for.
I mean, she did it first.
Lucille Ball was in every way just a trailblazer.
Part of the first interracial couple depicted on television,
one of the first female studio heads in Hollywood,
started her own studio, produced her own show.
I'm a newborn fetus.
She was a beautiful, feminine, fashion icon,
but also hilarious.
It's just she's so freakin' cool man.
- I'm so excited to get transformed into Tracee.
She is a style icon and I actually do my makeup
to try and look like her everyday.
- Oh I'm so fucking excited, are you kidding me?
I am so excited to be Toph.
I've wanted to be Toph for so long.
- I don't know how I will look with orange hair,
but we're just gonna go for it and do it.
I did tell Sarah who's doing hair today that I have
some sideburns that need to be covered up.
- At first I was like, I don't want to wear a bustier,
I don't feel comfortable doing that,
but then I was like, you know what, Selena did it.
I wanna do it.
- (exhales forcefully) Let's do it.
(exhales forcefully) I'm so ready.
- Thank you.
So I was in the makeup chair for awhile.
- I mean I already feel great.
- All I wanna do it just like runway walk
all the way around this white cyc.
- This is the most undressed I've been
while being clothed in front of people.
In front of Internet.
- And I can see like my hair from my peripheral vision.
Like I can just see it poking out
and looking very Tracee-esque.
- I mean technically I can't see myself
because Toph is blind, but I'll see myself.
(laughs)
(gasps)
- Oh my God look at me.
- This is crazy.
- I don't even look,
I look completely different.
- Oh my God, oh my God.
- I a little bit look like J. Lo looking like Selena,
but I'm still fine with that.
I'll take that.
- I look crazy and powerful.
- I just look totally different.
What?
I just have to like look composed, like that arched eyebrow.
You know?
The glamour shots.
Ricky, Ricky!
- I am honestly speechless.
I don't, yeah.
- This is the coolest thing I've ever worn
and I once wore a cape.
- It's so crazy because I just stalk Tracee's Instagram
all the time just watching all of her glam red carpet looks
and even just her casual looks, she just looks flawless.
Kind of crazy to see that I'm kind of like
recreating that and emulating her.
- Wow, she was so glamorous.
- I feel super powerful, I feel like I can go out
on the street and like live my best life.
- I feel in awe.
I don't feel like I'm looking at myself,
I feel like I'm looking at her.
So I'm just kind of like hey, what's up?
- I've always looked up to her and now I'm just looking
straight ahead at me and seeing her.
Selena suits me, I will say that.
- When I first watched Avatar, I didn't totally understand
why I loved it so much and then as I got older
I thought about it more and I loved it
'cause it was like, just like interesting to see
portrayals of Asian women just like being bad-ass
and being fighters.
Granted it's a cartoon, but to me it was like
the most powerful thing I could have watched.
- Tracee is just so many things.
She's funny, she's positive, she's beautiful,
her body's amazing, her hair is everything.
She wears grills, she wears Jordans, and also just
spreads like awesome, positive, lighthearted, energy
all the time and I just wanna like float around
and just bless people with positivity now.
- The biggest lesson I always take away from Lucy
is that if there isn't someone whose done it before
that doesn't mean you can't do it.
I mean it's gonna be hard, but you should just do it.
You should be the first one, you should be the trailblazer.
I have all these people to look up to
and I have all these people that influenced me
and inspired me and I'm sure she also had
female role models, but there wasn't really anyone
in Hollywood who had done this before her,
so she just did it.
- She was iconic and you know it's weird looking at yourself
and being like oh, I kind of, I kind of look iconic too,
just by looking like her.
- Just everyone know this is out of character for Toph.
She can't see anything, she's blind.
And a quote from the show, "What is wrong with you people?
"I'm blind."