Living Outside the Box

In her talk about labels, author Alyson Noel discusses what it means to be an icon, maverick or genius at a Chapman University TEDx talk. She shares her personal experiences growing up with labels such as stuck up bitch, gifted, AP honors student, failure and good writer.

She acknowledges while labels don't always fit, but they almost always stick. The New York Times Best Seller gets into how it takes a while for people to reframe their more tightly held perceptions, and even longer for us to reframe our tightly held perceptions of ourselves. Even though we label each other and ourselves, we all have a need to be seen, heard and understood.

At the end of her talk on labels, Noel implores the audience not to be defined by the perception others have of them and not to limit the potential of who they can be by living in the box and adhering to labels.