2019 was the year of Lizzo.
Every so often an artist enters the industry with the mission to inspire and empower a whole community of people through their music — something which Lizzo embodies via a message of self-love and acceptance, inspiring a generation to conquer the world as their authentic selves.
Here are some of the rap sensations’s most inspiring life lessons to date:
LOVING YOURSELF
“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.” — NBC
I will never shame anyone for reminding you to love yourself.
But I will always shame corporations. ??♀️ They don’t care about us. Period. They only care about money— and when unrealistic body standards are “trendy” again they will switch right back from self-love to self-hate. https://t.co/X9Y39HXr2u
— |L I Z Z O| (@lizzo) October 25, 2018
“It’s unfair for us to assume that people know how to love themselves … [corporations have] spent decades telling people they weren’t good enough and selling them an ideal of beauty. All of a sudden you’re selling them self-love? People don’t know how to love themselves, because they were trying to look like the motherfucker you were selling them!” — Guardian
BODY POSITIVITY
““It’s not a label I wanted to put on myself. It’s just my existence. All these fucking hashtags to convince people that the way you look is fine. Isn’t that fucking crazy? I say I love myself, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s so brave. She’s so political.’ For what? All I said is ‘I love myself, bitch!’ Even when body positivity is over, it’s not like I’m going to be a thin white woman. I’m going to be black and fat. That’s just hopping on a trend and expecting people to blindly love themselves. That’s fake love. I’m trying to figure out how to actually live it.” — The Cut
FAT DOES NOT = UGLY. Love Yourself. Eat like you love yourself. Drink water like you love yourself. Dance & move your body like you love yourself. Next time someone calls you fat remember you’ve got fat in your body just like them. And having fat is beautiful. @Allure_magazine pic.twitter.com/Iu2v9tTt0H
— |L I Z Z O| (@lizzo) April 17, 2018
“The body-positive movement is the body-positive movement, and we high five. We’re parallel. But my movement is my movement. When all the dust has settled on the groundbreaking-ness, I’m going to still be doing this. I’m not going to suddenly change. I’m going to still be telling my life story through music. And if that’s body positive to you, amen. That’s feminist to you, amen. If that’s pro-black to you, amen. Because ma’am, I’m all of those things.” — Allure
SELF ACCEPTANCE
“I think I was, like 21, because that was the worst year of my life thus far: My father passed away, I was homeless, I didn’t have any money, my band was doing really badly and I was by myself. I hadn’t been eating because I didn’t have money, and I was honestly the smallest physically I’d ever been — and still, that was the worst I’d ever felt about myself. And I remember one day being like, ‘This is it.’ Twenty-some-odd years of me believing that one day I can wake up and be some other girl. It’s like, you’re not gonna wake up and be bigger or smaller or lighter or darker; your hair’s not gonna suddenly grow down past your knees. You’re going to look this way for the rest of your life. And you have to be OK with that.” — NPR
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Haven’t been feelin sexy lately… it’s crazy how you can BE cute and still not FEEL cute… sheesh ?
SELF CARE
“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.” — Instagram
INCLUSION
“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.” — Junkee
HONESTY
““When I have to make decisions, I always choose honesty and I always stay true to myself, because I know at the end of the day that is what’s going to remain. That is what’s going to be the legend: That I was true to myself and that I honored every person by staying truthful to them.” — Rolling Stone