Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie On The TEDx Talk Beyonce Sampled And Why We Should Forget Feminism's 'Baggage'

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"Feminist: A person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes."

This line is most famous for being in the middle of Beyonce's "Flawless," but before we were associating those words with Queen Bey, they were spoken by Nigerian author and activist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie during an April 2013 TEDx talk.

The 36-year-old novelist was born and raised in Nigeria, where she lives with her husband, after spending many years in the United States completing an undergraduate and two Master's degrees. Ngozi is best known for her books -- Half of a Yellow Sun (which was adapted into a film that will be released this summer) and the critically praised Americanah, which was named one of the New York Times Book Review's best books of 2013 .

And now of course, people have been praising Adichie for bringing feminist activism into mainstream pop culture. (She is also quite vocal on other social issues, including being an outspoken opponent of Nigeria's anti-gay legislation .)

Adichie spoke with The Huffington Post about why it's hard for some young women to embrace the term "feminism," advice her mother gave her and one issue American women should pay attention to in 2014.

How do you define success and do you consider yourself successful by that measure?
Do I consider myself successful? I dont really think in those terms. But if I said yes, I would need to counter it by saying its not the end. I think its very easy to say yes, I consider myself successful and Im there. I feel very fortunate that Im doing what I love and Im earning my living from doing it, but theres so much more I want to do.

And so maybe for me success means youre in a place where you feel like yourself, youre doing what you love but theres so much more. I dont think Im ever going to get to the place where Im complacent.

Given that you're such an advocate for women, what is one issue you think women should really be paying attention to in 2014?
In the U.S., I would say reproductive rights. I find it really alarming that this is a country where this is still debated. It's shocking. It shouldnt be a battle in 2014.

What specifically inspired you to give your now-famous TEDx talk: "We should all be feminists"?
You know, I was sort of scribbling that talk two minutes before I went onstage. My brother and my best friend had organized this thing and had sort of bullied me into speaking. They had asked me the year before and I had said no because I had done this other TED talk that lots of people had seen. And I said, I have nothing else to talk about. Im talked out. I wish I could pull out fantastic ideas every day, but I really was talked out.

Then my brother said, Well, but there is one thing youre passionate about. Ya know, your woman thing. (I argue with him about all kinds of things.) And I said, OK, Ill talk about that then. So thats where it came from. For me, gender, feminism -- its integral to who I am. And so it didnt really require any work. It was just thinking about things and writing them down. It sounds cliche, but it was something that was really heartfelt for me.

What do you see as the biggest barrier to young women connecting to feminism today?
The word itself comes with such bad baggage. Youll have women who if you listed out major ideas of gender equality, they would agree with them, but then if you said, are you a feminist?, theyd say no. That's one of the reasons I wanted to use the word feminism. [I wanted to] talk to young people, and say, forget the history of the word and the baggage it carries, and think about the idea of it.

Adichie in Paris in 2004.

What's the best piece of advice youve ever gotten?
Lets see, of the 2,500 things my mother told me ... she said always carry a handkerchief. I have one in my bag, right here. And Ive never been quite sure why I need to carry one, but if youre raised and told to every day, then you do.