Watching the Oscars Sunday [...]]]> At 51,839 words. Feel like this book has turned into a donkey that I keep beating, trying to get it to submit to my will. But just like a donkey, my novel just sits there, looking at me with vacant eyes as if saying, “Is this all you’ve got?”

Watching the Oscars Sunday night, I was captured by Oscar-nominated star, Gabourey Sidibe. Not for her dress, or for her hair, (I know—shocking right?) but for her courage.

This girl didn’t have half the acting experience as some of her peers. (Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, and George Clooney just to name a few.)

She wasn’t in the business that long when she got discovered, in fact she wasn’t in the business at all.

But the one thing she has that no one can deny, is a god-given talent to act. She belongs on the screen.

I think it takes courage to sit in a room full of people that you used to watch on television—people you might have looked up to—and find yourself not only talking to them, but actually being nominated for an award with them. They are no longer your role models, but your peers.

When I switched gears from being a hairstylist to a writer, I questioned whether or not I belonged. What gave me the right to say that I could write a novel, something I’ve never attempted to do in my life? It took courage to stand in front of people, to watch their face twist in a smirk of doubt as if to say, “Writer? But you’re a hairstylist!”

Wrong. I was a hairstylist. Now, I’m a writer.

Gabourey Sidibe was a student. Now, every time her name is said, people will preface it with, “Academy-Award nominated.” She is an actress.

It takes courage to put yourself out there, to believe in yourself when you have no track record to speak for you. But looking at Gabourey’s face tear up as Oprah talked to her about her role in Precious, it was clear that she belonged.

And I do too.