Your TV Girl Crushes Get Candid

On working hard: "Definitely none of the kids I grew up with would have ever thought, 'Zooey will be on television and have her own show.' I wasn't the world's most popular child, which gave me built-in tenacity. Nothing has ever come easy for me, and I think that's a really good thing. I learned at an early age that you have to work hard for what you get."

On a shift in girliness being seen as weakness: "There has been a shift. I really have stood up for myself on multiple platforms. It's sort of the grown-up version of middle-school nastiness, and I'm just like, come on. If there's one thing I'd like to graduate from, it's girl-on-girl hate. I don't believe in it."

On her TV show as a distraction from her mother's death: "Any person that's been in the business knows they're so lucky to have their show picked up — it happens to such a small fraction of shows. But I was lucky personally, because I needed a distraction so badly from my grief. Still my thoughts flutter toward her in scenes that I'm doing, every night before I go to bed, and every morning when I wake up."

Mindy's ex, best friend, and collaborator, B.J. Novak, on her success: "She's a gangster and guys respond to that. This is not a girl who waits by the phone. This is a girl who picks up the phone and calls whoever she wants."

On her red carpet choices: "I wanted to establish a baseline: Here's what I look like, I have long brown hair, I wear this kind of dress, this is the deal. You can count on it! Look at Jennifer Aniston: she's America's sweetheart for a reason. You know what she's going to look like when she shows up to something, and there's something so comfortable in that."

On her career aspirations: "I want to play a villain. I want to play a romantic heroine. I want to play someone who's on heroin. There's nothing I don't want to do. I want to play a guy at some point. I'll gain 100 pounds, I'll cut my hair off, I'll do whatever. I'm not precious about any of it."

On balancing a career and motherhood: "Now that I have kids, I'm up at 5:30 a.m. no matter what. Sleep at this point is just a concept, something I'm looking forward to investigating in the future."

On being both a comedian and a grown-up: "I'd like to say that I maintain that same sense of play and creativity and spontaneity — of being able to get into a room with people and say, 'Let's waste some time.' When you're a creative person, even when you're in a position of power, you still have to be able to straddle both worlds."

On what's next in her career: "I like to do things that challenge me and make me nervous. You learn early as an actor that creating your own material is the only way to have any control. Hollywood is like a bad boyfriend. You can't stand around and wait to be asked to dance."