Netflix's runaway hit show "Orange Is the New Black" didn't gain popularity just for its unique mix of well-acted drama and comedy, taking us inside Litchfield Prison and the personal lives of the women who live within its walls. Its phenomenal cast are also advocates for real issues such as equality for transgender people, carrying discussion of issues raised by the show (castmember Laverne Cox plays a transgender inmate) into the world.

At a recent red carpet in support of the show's awards campaign, members of the cast shared their best advice for transgender teens like Gavin Grimm, the 16-year-old currently embroiled in a lawsuit over his right to use men's bathrooms at his school.

"You have to be really strong," Selenis Leyva told MTV News. "You have to turn to your family, and if your family is not supportive, there are so many organizations right now that are helping the transgender community, so it's not like before when you didn't have a support system."

Lead Taylor Schilling reminded kids to "keep going."

"It's one of the hardest things on earth to be yourself in the face of people having ideas about who you should be, but to keep listening to yourself as much as you can to tune out the noise of other people," she said. "You always know your truth and it's safe and brave to listen to it."

It's important to stay true to who you are, Uzo Aduba agreed.

"Difference is what makes you, you," she said. "Supremely. Trying to conform, trying to fit in, is for the birds. That's not really what you need to try and do. Whatever you believe in, whatever you think is right, stand up for it. If you think something wrong is happening for somebody else, stand up for somebody else. It's never, ever wrong to defend the little guy, the person who's being oppressed or held back."

Laverne Cox, who earlier this year debuted the documentary "The T Word" following trans teens' lives on MTV, also encouraged those facing tough times to find support, and offered wisdom worthy of framing and hanging above your bed.

"This too shall pass," she said. "There is a wonderful world out there that is waiting for you. Sometimes you just have to get through the horrible middle school or the horrible high school that you're in so you can go out and experience that world. Hang in there, find support, you don't have to do it alone.

"Remember you are loved."