Maria Bello: 'The Only Labels You Should Have Are The Ones You Give Yourself'

Actress Maria Bello is all about her "whatever" label, which she coined in a 2013 New York Times article where she came out as a "modern family" alongside her partner Clare Munn. The actress continued the conversation on HuffPost Live on Wednesday, when she discussed the importance of finding fluid ways to identify ourselves.

Bello, whose new book Whatever ... Love Is Love is available now, explained the fluidity of her own family to host Alyona Minkovski and said that while she and her son's father, Dan McDermott, are not romantically involved anymore, they are "still together" because they are "in a partnership."

"Things shift and change and it's fluid, and I think the younger generation is knowing that more and [is] excited about it," the actress said. "It's not static -- life just isn't -- and we have to create better labels to embrace the beauty of who we are."

Bello hopes her book and the conversations surrounding it will encourage people to question the often-restrictive labels we use to describe ourselves. In a video to accompany the book, she said she thought about her own labels last year when Facebook added 51 gender options, "at least 15" of which she can apply to herself.

"The ['Whatever'] movement is getting rid of the labels that hold you back and embracing the ones that make you feel the best of who you are or make you feel proud to be part of a community," she said, adding that we should only embrace the labels that we give ourselves.

Watch the full segment with Maria Bello here.

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