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I always wanted to be honest with myself and to those who have had faith in me.

One of the commitments I made to myself when I decided to write a book was to be brutally honest, particularly about myself.

Sometimes I got scared of being too honest, because being in the public eye, I have always tried to hide my personal life. But I realized that isn't healthy.

I am a very honest person, and I can only say there are moments in my life where I really did think I was being me in the sense of my morals and beliefs and the way I acted. But when I look back at certain things that I wore and my hair and make-up, I was like, 'Whoa! That wasn't me!' But I didn't know it back then.

For a long time I tried to manage an honesty and openness about my personal life because I'm human and I'm normal - well, semi-normal.

I spent the first 33 years of my life with secrets, and lots of them. I spent a great deal of energy worrying over what people thought and obscuring the things I was ashamed of... trying to appear what I thought was normal.

There are still times in my life where I pull back from being totally honest, and I can't imagine a single straight person who would understand that.

I had a lot of conversations with my family, my close friends, with my pastor, with God, and kind of came to a revelation that maybe I should be honest with myself about who I am and let that person - this woman who has lived inside me for my entire life - finally have an opportunity to live.

Most of us were probably less than immaculately honest as teenagers; it's practically encoded into adolescence that you savor your secrets, dress in disguise, carve out some space for experiments and accidents and all the combustible lab work of becoming who you are.

I think I have come to a place where I'm able to feel more comfortable about being honest.