Amandla Stenberg is featured among ‘The New Progressives” in the lastest issue of Interview magazine. Inside the issue, Stenberg talks about wanting to be a director and being admitted to NYU School of Film.

“I mean, I’ve pretty much grown up on set, and my favorite part about it is being able to actually see how movies are made. I knew when I was about 14 that I wanted to be a director and that I wanted to go to NYU for film school. It kind of feels like it’s been a long time coming. [laughs] It’s a relief to actually be in, because the college process is so hyped-up.”

The 17-year-old star says that as an actress, the ability to play different roles has helped her to access parts of her identity

“I think there are two sides of the coin. On one hand, it can be challenging to access different parts of yourself, and you kind of have to put yourself back into reality when you’re done with the job. But I think it’s also really cool to have the ability to try on being different people and to explore some parts of yourself because you get to know yourself better. You get to know parts of yourself that you haven’t met before. I think that’s something that I’ve been learning more recently.”

She adds, “There’s this poet, Nayyirah Waheed, and she has this poem that goes, “there / are / feelings. / you haven’t felt yet. / give them time. / they are almost here.” And that’s something I am continuously trying to remember. Because I think when we’re growing up and being teenagers, oftentimes you try so hard to define yourself. You try to create an image of yourself because you don’t really know who you are yet. And that can be kind of limiting because you forget that there are actually so many different sides of identity. And it’s important to recognize that everyone is completely different. Everyone experiences different parts of themselves at different times, these different parts of themselves that come out in different settings.”

To find out Amandla’s thoughts on social media. pop-culture, feminism and more, head to Interview.com

Photos: Interview.com