I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100% hopping onboard the Lizzo bandwagon. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve undoubtably heard the name Lizzo sometime in the past six months. Her cultural relevance is at an all-time high right now, and her impact doesn’t just stem from the fact that she makes awesome music. Lizzo is truly breaking down barrios and changing the music industry right before our eyes.
I’m a 90’s kid, which means people like Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore define my generation’s perception of what it means to be a female artist. For my generation, females in the music industry were forced into a box that defined what they were supposed to look like, what they were supposed to wear and what music they were persuaded to create. Iconic tracks would be accompanied by a laundry list of writers, producers and editors. Music videos would be dictated by choreographers, hair and makeup artists and designers. The icons were, for what seems like forever, shoved into a space that was inauthentic. And while I am by no means discrediting the progress that former pop queens made within their own right, Lizzo is breaking down barriers. She appeared nude on the cover of her latest album “Cuz I Love You,” thereby showing the music industry and everyone who listens to her music that bold is beautiful, that authentic women are not all size zeros with perfectly cinched waists. She consistently performs in bold leotards, is surrounded by singers and dancers of every creed and when the crowd thought the barriers couldn’t be broken down any more, Lizzo busts out her traditional musical instrument, the flute. She is bold and unapologetic and actively shows so many people, who never saw themselves as cultural icons, that authenticity is the greatest power.
Additionally, as Glamour notes, a byproduct of Lizzo’s meteoric rise to fame is that she’s become a face of the body-positivity movement. Lizzo’s music and message are even more powerful and relevant in the era of social media we’re living in today, where people are constantly comparing themselves to others and feeling inadequate. Here are a few of my favorite Lizzo quotes that make me instantly feel like I’m “100% that b*tch.”
- “When people look at my body and be like, ‘Oh my God, she’s so brave,’ it’s like, ‘No, I’m not. I’m just fine. I’m just me. I’m just sexy. If you saw Anne Hathaway in a bikini on a billboard, you wouldn’t call her brave. I just think there’s a double standard when it comes to women.”
- You can love yourself. Every single day. If you can love my big black at this tiny, tiny little desk, you can love yourself.”
- “I didn’t have enough women to look up to and they weren’t given enough space in the industry to carve out a lane for big girls that are brown and black and want to sing and dance without getting shit talked and body shamed. I’m out here and I set my mind to it. I want to be a sex symbol and music goddess and I’m out here trying to make that happen for myself. I’m here for the fantasy but I want to be a part of that fantasy. I’m just as fine as those girls.”
- “I don’t think that loving yourself is a choice. I think that it’s a decision that has to be made for survival; it was in my case. Loving myself was the result of answering two things: Do you want to live? ‘Cause this is who you’re gonna be for the rest of your life. Or are you gonna just have a life of emptiness, self-hatred and self-loathing? And I chose to live, so I had to accept myself.”
- “Self care is in the little moments — bathing, sweating, washing your hair.. it’s in laughing so hard you can barely catch a breath, your lungs expanding on a morning jog… now more than ever we need to enjoy the quiet within ourselves.”
- “My movement is for everybody. My movement celebrates diversity. It’s all about inclusion. It’s all about getting our flowers and giving each person their own space to be an individual and speak up for that individuality.”
