Amandla Stenberg Feels 'Lucky' To Star In 'Everything, Everything'!

Amandla Stenberg is opening up about diversity and getting the chance to represent black girls in her new film Everything, Everything!

“Diversity is something that people desperately want. I’m lucky enough to be here and see what’s happening and take those roles when they do appear,” the 18-year-old actress, who is most notably known for playing Rue in The Hunger Games, recently expressed (via EW).

“I’m very aware of how special it is that I get to have this experience of creating representation while talking about representation at a time where people really, really want to see black girls as leads in movies,” Amandla continued. “I definitely think it’s important to balance creating content that speaks directly on race and content that doesn’t talk about it all, but it speaks for itself. It can be more powerful to create a film like Everything, Everything and then get distributed to kids in the Midwest who maybe don’t live in very diverse communities and get to see this black girl in the lead, you know? In many ways they’ll be able to understand that much more than they’ll be able to understand an article about representation.”

Pictured: Amandla joining her co-stars Anika Noni Rose, Nick Robinson, and Ana dela Reguera at a special VIP screening of their film Everything, Everything held at The Metrograph on Sunday (April 30) in New York City.

Everything, Everything hits theaters on Friday (May 19) – Watch trailer here!