Gina Rodriguez: 'Whatever breaks your heart, that's your life's purpose'

(29 Jul 2016) GINA RODRIGUEZ: 'WHATEVER BREAKS YOUR HEART, THAT'S YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE' Gina Rodriguez is on a mission to inspire and uplift young people through social media - replying regularly to those who write to her on Twitter and elsewhere with questions about self-confidence or other issues. The 31-year-old "Jane the Virgin" star didn't necessarily start out with a purpose behind her engagement online, but says now: "Whatever breaks your heart, that's your life's purpose." "It breaks my heart to think that there are people out there that don't have role models or don't have anyone to hold on to or have no one to relate to or have some kind of fear or self-confidence issue. And if they are looking to me and they're actually asking me, then the honor is mine. Should I feel the desire to respond because I feel like I can? That honor is mine And that is something that I feel like is a gift. So I don't take those gifts for granted because I have a really blessed life. And I feel like that's the trade-off." Many of the young people who write to Rodriguez on Twitter end up going back to delete their original messages to her, which Rodriguez says shows a lack of self-confidence. "Like that just happened the other day, she was like, 'I got so nervous that you even responded, I deleted it.' But it's a testament to how social media works and how we have a desire to be seen and heard and believe that we're not. We believe that we have a lack of power, when on the contrary – we have so much power. So when they ask me a question and I have a desire to respond or I feel like I can respond and they retreat - I want to go even deeper. I want to go even deeper because I think to myself, I'm like, 'You want to be heard. You want to be seen. Where does the fear exist?'" Rodriguez says she doesn't worry about spending too much time on social media at the expense of communicating with real-life friends and family. "I live a pretty honest life. To me, honesty is freedom. So should somebody present that I've been on social media and I haven't contacted them, then I will be honest as to the reason why I haven't contacted them. And it will never be my mother that that happens to because she will give it to me real good and she deserves to. But yeah, I definitely don't question that part of my life because I live in honesty. I live in truth." Rodriguez just finished filming the sci-fi thriller "Annihilation," due out next year, and she'll appear in September's "Deepwater Horizon," about the 2010 BP oil spill. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...