I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. I believe that one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time.

Taking time to be more fully present. Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now.

Time Magazine, names are one of the most influential teenagers in America.

You first met her in the worldwide blockbuster film The Hunger Games.

A Manla Stenberg is just 17 years old and she already has a Super Soul frame of mind. I love that about her. She's taken social media by storm with her fresh insights on living an awakened and authentic life.

A Manla calls her session My Authenticity is My Activism.

What is it to be a modern activist? My name is Amanda Stenberg. My mom named me after the Zulu word for power. I'm an actress. I am an activist. I'm a high schooler with plans to attend NYU in the fall.

When I was little, I used to wear my hair in this giant poo front of my head. I'd be chilling on the playground. Kids would have up to me and they would take my hood and throw it over my hair.

And then nested on me like I was a giant pillow. I hated it. I remember going home. I'm a person, not a pillow. She was like, okay, what do you want to do?

I was like, I want to change my hairstyle, but I don't want to wear it out because it's too big and it's too embarrassing and too frizzy to. So she was like, all right, I'll do whatever you need me to do.

So she started doing this thing where every two weeks, she would get over my hair with a jar of pomade and a wide tooth comb.

And she would put all my hair into these little neat twists. And as I grew up, I found new hairstyles, new ways to make my hair smaller and consequently myself smaller.

I straightened it. I put all kinds of chemicals in it. And God forbid that there was moisture in the air or that a droplet fell from the sky because I would be gone. I would vanish.

Recently, I've started wearing my hair natural. And oftentimes I get the question, why you wear your hair natural? Is it a part of your political agenda?

And in some ways it is. I've recently been kind of pinned by media as a new progressive, as a poster child for social activism.

But I have not led revolutions or led marches and resistances. I've tweeted.

And I've left controversial comments on Instagram. And I've posted my writings and talked about things such as Black Lives Matter, the dehumanization of Black female bodies, and cultural appropriation.

I made a video for my history class, which is called Don't Cash Crop My Corn Rose. And I showed it to my history class. It was about how Black hairstyles oftentimes get appropriated by white people, but then those Black people get little and discredited.

And I showed it to my history class, and they didn't like it that much. But then I posted it online and it would viral.

I've grown up being a huge fan of Angela Davis. When I had the opportunity to be on the cover of Dave's magazine, I asked if I could have this quote written across my face. And it's we have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating societies.

And I love Miss Davis, and I believe firmly in that. But it's been difficult for me to claim the space of an activist when the most revolutionary thing that I've done is type vigorously on a six by three inch touchscreen.

And it's interesting. It's like my array of weapons are these different colored squares on an iPhone. It felt really silly to be called brave at first when I did most of my activism from the comfort of my bed with some popcorn and some old episodes of French Prince of Belayr.

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