When it comes to celebrating diversity and confronting issues that often fall outside the mainstream, cast members of “Orange Is The New Black” don’t just read the words written for them — they voice their commitment off-screen as well.

For Uzo Aduba, representing diverse groups of women is personal, she told HuffPost Live on July 30. Aduba, to who plays Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren, embraces her responsibility as a role model to her niece and other young women who look to television to see their realities represented.

“It’s important to be a champion for young women,” Aduba told host Marc Lamont Hill. “It’s exciting to me to be on a show with so many different women being represented — women of color, different sizes, different orientation and gender, all of these things are being touched on … and all [are] beautiful and being celebrated for that individuality.”

Aduba reflected on just how much television has progressed with regard to diversity, offering younger viewers a mirror they haven’t always had.

“I only wonder when I was a kid what it would have been like to see more of that on television myself,” she said. “I feel proud to be in an age where we have people like the Jenji’s [Kohan] and Shonda Rhymes’ of the world who are wanting to change the landscape that way. It’s thrilling to me and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Click here to watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with Uzo Aduba.

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