Hollywood star and singer Jennifer Lopez said that she didn’t feel like the “girl next door” and that there were not many roles for Latinas when she started out in her career.

“I heard someone say that positive change is slow, and it is, but as long as we’re moving in the right direction, that is what matters. When I started, there weren’t a lot of roles for Latinas. I was auditioning for parts with accents and stereotypes. I kept thinking, ‘Why can’t I just play a romantic lead? Why can’t I be the girl next door?’ That belief—that conviction that I belonged—was what helped me break those moulds,” said Lopez in a podcast.