Miranda Tapsell loves to have fun, even in the make-up chair, but is deadly serious about standing up against racism and her new special on Aborigines sharing their culture, writes Holly Byrnes
Miranda Tapsell is a hugger. Can't end a phone call without chirping "I love you". Plants a kiss on your cheek before you get out the word "hello".
Even in the make-up chair, Tapsell shines brighter than a lightbulb mirror - all giggles and gabbing with a small team of stylists she's met just minutes before.
It's exciting and hilarious and utterly joyful to be in her company. But it would be a mistake to think this pocket rocket, who admits she still buys some of her clothes in the children's department, doesn't have big, important, serious things to say. 
Let's start with the Adam Goodes controversy.
"Yeah, let's talk about that," she booms, "I'm really passionate about that ... that whole conversation (on racism). We need to keep talking about it because it's never a full stop." Like many, Tapsell agonised over the Sydney Swans player who was booed into silence last month by a section of the AFL community affronted by his indigenous activism. Or his free kicks record. Or whatever excuse they used for being jerks to the former Australian Of The Year.
Born in Darwin and raised a proud Larrakia and Tiwi woman, the 27-year-old knows the scorching pain of racism, of the lasting high-school trauma of been shamed into shutting her mouth about her mixed heritage and brown skin.
"I certainly haven't experienced that (racism) on the sort of scale that Adam did, but I had to stand up for myself at school, especially when I was called a half-caste." As the great granddaughter of one of the Stolen Generation and the beloved child of an Aboriginal woman Barbara and a non-indigenous man Tony, Tapsell was taught not to use such a loaded term.
"What that word holds for my family ... it's just demeaning. It means that I'm half a person and I'm not half a person." She was 15 when a male, non-indigenous classmate demanded she explain "why you can't say you're just Australian?" "I didn't know how to answer that, but went home really upset and told my parents the story. I had an oral English presentation the next day and my dad said to me 'well, if this is how strongly you feel, why don't you speak up?' So I did and I got jeered in front of the whole class," Tapsell said.
"All the boys stood up and barked and booed ... it was a really full-on time. It went on for months. I got called 'gin bag', I got called 'nigger', I got called so many things, so it did take a while for me to learn how to stand up for myself again.
"It took years because I just thought 'I don't want to feel like that again'. I was made to feel like rubbish because I stood up for myself and I don't want to go through that battle again because it's just too exhausting. So I empathised with Adam Goodes completely." She was five when she says she realised she was "different". "I remember washing myself and I just looked at my skin and it's not like I was trying to scrub it off, but I was just curious and realised - 'oh right, so I am different'." Because there was a big Aboriginal population in Darwin, Tapsell says "there were lots of kids who looked like me." "I grew up watching Sesame Street and Play School, where they explained to you that being different isn't bad. It wasn't until I went to high school where people pointed out that it was a problem and I didn't really quite understand how to deal with that." Embracing her difference, celebrating it, has been part of Tapsell's magic - first on stage, earning a scholarship with the Bell Shakespeare theatre company; then in film in the international screen sensation, The Sapphires, and most recently on TV in Redfern Now and Love Child.
The NIDA graduate used her acceptance speech as the winner of the prestigious Graham Kennedy award for outstanding new talent at this year's Logie awards to plead for greater diversity on the local small screen.
Speaking up to an audience of her peers took some encouragement from family and friends, with Tapsell admitting she "was terrified about the judgment".
"People did caution me (against making the speech) but I think they were just trying to protect me. They made the point that what I was saying was quite provocative and that's the sad thing about it ... I'm the one who has to censor myself," she says, exasperated.
While she is grateful for all the opportunities she's been given and the overwhelmingly positive response she received for the speech, the casting choices of TV producers still don't reflect the multi-cultural Australia of today.
Tapsell, for one, wants to see the many different faces and races of her own family, reflected back at her on TV.
"I can't even remember the project now, but I was auditioning for the role of a niece and they'd already cast the actress who was going to play my aunty and she wasn't Aboriginal. Now, I have so many aunties who aren't indigenous from my dad and that's a reality for me. That's my truth I've always known. I've got a cousin who has a Japanese mother, who is married to my dad's brother. I've got a cousin the same age as me with blonde hair and blue eyes and I've got brown hair and brown skin. All I'd have to say to people is 'she's my cousin from my dad's side' and that was it. So I'm a bit perplexed why (producers) can't just do that? I don't quite get the logic, but that's where I want television and film to go." She's not one for being colour blind, either, surprising friends with her response when they say "Miranda, I don't see your colour".
"My argument is 'I think you should'. I think you should see that you're different and you should celebrate it, you shouldn't feel awkward." Taking her place on the soap box isn't where she feels most comfortable, but Tapsell says if she inspires one person like fellow indigenous actors Deborah Mailman, Ursula Yovich and Leah Purcell did before her, then it's worth it.
It's why she leapt at the chance to appear in the NITV special Who We Are: Brave New Clan - one of six stories from young Aboriginal Australians who share what their culture means to them.
"I'll always speak up. While (racism) is hurtful, it will be like my high-school days where I need a moment to step back and go 'OK, I need to find my armour again because I'm feeling quite vulnerable'.
"When I share my story, I'm just asking people to hear me out. They'll get their chance for me to hear them ... I just want my moment where someone sits down and listens." She adds: "I'm not out there to say 'here's my plight and it's bigger than yours'. It's not a competition. I'm not Cathy Freeman of the hardship Olympics, here I am with my gold medal. I don't need to prove that.
"The thing is, I can't change my identity. It's here and I'm not going away. I know you want me to go away, but I'm not going away."WHO WE ARE: BRAVE NEW CLAN AIRS 8.30PM, TONIGHT ON NITV (CHANNEL 34)