Quote

When I got out of my Twenties I stopped playing women that were victims. I like playing women who are strong and have a piece of mind.

The notion that gaming was not for women rippled out into society, until we heard it not just from the games industry, but from our families, teachers and friends. As a consequence, I, like many women, had a complicated, love-hate relationship with gaming culture.

I've discovered on this journey in the entertainment industry that, especially as a girl, woman... it's really important to try to create your own opportunities.

I've been in a very male-dominated business for decades. I found, particularly early on, that there's plenty of room for passion, but there's very little room for emotion.

I've often played very strong, flashy, kind of inadvertently mean women. I am not that way in my real life.

I'm not a girl who started getting into music and using my femininity to get attention. When I was getting into it, it was all pure skill.

So I constantly play women who are damaged and out of touch, who are seeking without knowing, or knowing without the skills to transform their lives. But then, that's really the fate of many women today.

I've never thought about any kind of prejudice about women in country music because I never felt like it affected me. I was fortunate enough to come about in a time when I didn't feel that kind of energy at all, and it was always my theory that if you want to play in the same ballgame as the boys, you've got to work as hard as them.

I feel like a part of my role being a musician and part of why I want to be a musician is to show women an alternative to sort of the cultural norms, the stereotypes of what we're supposed to be, demure and quiet and motherly.

I never do anything to strictly satisfy a fickle, ever-changing commercial world. I do the music I like to play. It's the only way I feel comfortable existing in the industry.