To be completely honest, I never thought I could become a model growing up. I actually wanted to be an entertainment journalist.

Growing up in the greater Toronto area, I was a happy kid. I was my mother's first child, surrounded by admiring godparents and cousins.

Growing up, I didn't have a lot of real friends, and the people I was friends with, I've grown apart from - they were frenemies more than anything.

When I got older, it got harder because when kids get older, they get meaner, so I went through a lot of bullying and people calling me, like, 'zebra' or 'cow,' so it was really hard growing up.

I get so much inspiration from my travels, but I also started an exercise where I write down so many words every week. Then I begin crossing them off. We create a grid of words and also images, but words for me are more ample because you can interpret them your own way.

Ever since I started skating, making the Olympic team was my ultimate dream. It's what has inspired and motivated me throughout my entire career.

Money was never the motivation. It never should be in sports.

I always say three things make a writer: inspiration, obviously; perspiration, doing the work. But the third is desperation. I'm not really fit for anything else, or to have a real job. That fear drives me. The pressure has always been self inflicted.