We're all fighting for the same thin,g and I hope that the fight for equality, the fight to help people get over their anxiety or depression, whatever thing they're going through, I hope that we can all come together more as a community.Collection: Equality
My dad came to Korea one time, and then he pulls out a whole bunch of my headshot prints. He's like, 'Amber, you need to sign all of this for me because all of my friends want these.' I guess that's when I kind of realized I was 'famous.'Collection: Famous
For me, when I went through my depression, I always felt like I was alone, and because people never understood me, I had to shut myself out from the world. Art and music was the only thing that could ever help me get over that.Collection: Alone
I'm all for equality.Collection: Equality
Gay, straight, bi, whatever - it doesn't matter. Love is love.
I've always felt like, you know, there's this imaginary wall that we ourselves put up or others do by saying that we can't do something.
The sun sucks. I used to love the sun, but now I hate it because it just wants to kill everything. I always tell everyone, if you don't want to do skin care, fine, but at least put sunscreen on. The reason why we have little freckles, skin cancer, and wrinkles is because of the sun.
I love songwriting, and rap is part of my songwriting, but I'm not a rapper.
I'm really scared of everything. I'm very, very emotional. I'm extremely soft!
There's a blessing that you're in a spotlight, but people follow you and want to keep asking you questions - it's just overwhelming sometimes.
I fell in love with music because it gave me an escape, it gave me strength, and it gave me confidence.
Sometimes, when I do certain looks, I don't want the intention to be taken out of context or expressed in the wrong way.
In a T-shirt and basketball shorts - that's just my go-to: I'm ready for a workout. I'm ready to go play basketball. I'm ready to go dance. I'm ready to go into the studio. It's my getup for anything. I can get it dirty, which is fine. I can sweat in it; it's fine. It's nostalgic because it's what I wore every day as a kid.
I don't think you really get to know a person until you talk to them.
I think that, definitely, as I've gotten older, my perspective changes. My love of music has definitely not changed; my love of the arts has definitely not changed.
I do my taxes. I do my own bookkeeping. I pay rent.
When you meet a lot of people and you date somebody, or you're just in a relationship with friends, lovers, business, or whatever it may be, there are people that are just toxic to you, and you don't even know it yourself.
One of my goals always, when I write music, is that it's not only me sharing my story with the fans: it's also a reminder to myself that, 'Hey, I said this so that I need to grow from it.'
I was born and raised in West Hills. I moved to Korea when I was 15. I've been back and forth since.
My parents are really supportive of everything I do.
My mom was a house mom when we were growing up, and that's all I knew about her. I had a really big disconnect with her because she only spoke Chinese. Her English isn't good at all. Being a typical second-generation, you have the basic stuff, but I never had a deep conversation with her.
As any human does, I have my happy times and sad times.
I'm always in the studio working on music and dancing.
Definitely, doing my solo stuff, it's fun in a different way. I get a lot more say. However, there's a lot more work to do because I have to make everything happen.
I'm comfortable with myself now, and I understand how goofy I am, how stupid I can be, how emotional I can be, or how focused I can be.
When I first debuted back in 2009, K-Pop was already starting to get bigger because of the Internet. And that's how I found it, because I'm not Korean.
I just love music. Every genre of music: country, rock. I originally first loved punk rock. Pop punk. I don't know, just rock in general. And getting to rap. And now K-pop. Different types of music. I love everything.
The reason I connected with music was because of the stories that people were telling and making me feel when I listened to a song.
If I can give something to the next generation, I want to give a message of positivity, to believe in themselves, because I think the world has just a lot of unnecessary stresses to be a certain way, look a certain way, do certain things.
I know when I was growing up, I was always lost and just thought I was alone and that I needed to find where I belonged.
And what I love about music and art in general is that you can take something so negative or positive - any emotion, no matter how sad or happy - and turn it into art.
I hear that I dress like a boy and that I should be more girly, which I can understand, but I just focus on what I want to do and enjoy my time with fans who love me for who I am.
I finally chopped off my ponytail at the end of middle school, and it was the best decision I made.
My Mandarin is slowly getting worse.
I think, in the end, we are all our own individual person.
Instead of trying to group people into something and have this one assumption, get to know someone for who they are. I guess a lot of people are really lazy to start getting to know people or make that effort.
I think we should let our guards down a little bit more.
People assume a lot about me. Some people come up and think I'm hard. I'm actually very, very shy. I'm bubbly in the right circumstances. But I'm a big introvert.
I wanted to tour the United States because I feel I owe it to the community that I grew up in. When I was growing up, the only people I saw on TV were Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and Jet Li. Our representation as Asians wasn't big, but I wanted to be like Lucy Liu and then Maggie Q.
People don't know what it's like being the foreigner until they are one.
I'm from Los Angeles, and we have 24/7 sun pretty much all year round.
In London and New York, people just naturally seem to dress really well, and that makes me want to do the same. In Seoul, too; in L.A., I'm just like, 'Eh.'
I was terrified to go solo. It's lonely doing it by myself. But I wanted to challenge myself.
Sitting on my butt waiting on opportunities won't do me any good.
Being on a K-pop label and agency, everything's taken care of for you. The music is set up for you. Your food, manager, practice room, recording studios - all these things are in the palm of your hand. However, you know the compromise of what you can actually do or say.
Society tells you home is where you grew up or where you settled, but nah. I have friends all over the world. Maybe I have a billion homes.
With anything new, if it's weird or cool, it will catch people's attention. But slowly, that new thing, if it catches on, it becomes a trend itself.
I don't cry that much, and if I do, it's for a really big thing.
I see that I'm very unique, but I'm not trying to be. I'm just being me.
The most important gift you can give anyone is honesty, and that's what I want to do.