No one appears to have more fun on Instagram than Lizzo. She shoots Steph Curry-range shots with the former Captain America and tries out new fashion looks she borrows from
To make us all feel less alone, Lizzo is partnering with Dove as the new brand ambassador for the brand’s "The Selfie Talk" campaign. The goal of the initiative to make social media a more accepting, empowering place for young women. Lizzo's key pieces of advice: find your tribe online, post that unfiltered selfie, and, most importantly, get naked. Ahead, Lizzo shares more tips for navigating the internet, changing beauty standards, and how Black women can carve out communities online for themselves.
How did your partnership with Dove come about?
I've been aware of Dove for a long time in the body-positive space. They've been crucial to commercializing and putting big bodies in the forefront and I've always admired that. I always felt like my mission was very parallel to theirs. They came to me specifically about the Self-Esteem Project and they showed me how much they've been working since 2014 and how much you've been helping people. I was like, okay, this is our moment to actually come together because social media and the way young people view themselves is really, really important to me. Dove is truly, truly walking the walk and I want to walk with them.
How important is it for you to share and normalize any struggles we have with mental health, our bodies, and social media?
I realized that I'm not alone. I used to feel like I was alone in the way that I felt. I felt like, it's just me who wants to wake up in someone else's body, a slimmer body. It's just me who hates myself this much. Or it's just me who feels a little crappy today. And when you start to feel like you're alone in it, it makes it worse. Social media has given me a forum and an opportunity to connect and communicate with people, to make me feel less alone in the world. Through that now, other people feel less alone. I'm glad that it's helping people, but I really started it because I felt very alone. That's the incredible thing about social media. I have a family online now and a place where I can be like, okay, I'm having a bad day, but I know someone out there is having a bad day too. Let's just change this energy and try to do better because we will get through it.
You have such a positive persona and you're just such a light for so many people, but on that flip side, it can be tough. Do you ever feel a sense of pressure even when you're not feeling great?
Literally, as you were like, you're such a positive person. I'm like, am I? Sometimes the most positive people are that way because they have mechanisms set up, they have things set in place to make themselves see the bright side because they see the dark side way too often. I'm always striving to feel better. I'm always trying to get to a positive space and I think that is the true positivity in it. It's not just, hey y'all, feeling good about myself. Woo. No, it's like, wow, she really worked hard to get to this place. You can see that she's actually found her joy and that's the most inspiring thing of all to see on the internet.
What are your key tips for feeling like yourself or giving yourself self-love even when you're down?
I'll say, we don't have all day because I can definitely list off a whole slew of things that I do. We got like two seconds. But in reference to social media, there are a few things that I learned to do to make myself feel better online and the Dove Self-Esteem Project is part of that. Dove has the confidence kit and it helps people have talks with young people so they can navigate their social media to make themselves feel better. A huge thing for me was curating my experience, seeing people who look like me, who I think are beautiful, so I can see the beauty in myself. Having a community of friends and people that I can be like, you know what, let me be in this person, see where she got their shirt because that shirt is cute, and be like, you know what I want to feel cute today. So there are a few things I like to do online to make it not such a scary place.
How are you hoping to change the conversation around social media and its impossible beauty standards?
Man, I think it's just by getting real, by being honest and you know what, I don't want to say real because I think that that is shaming people. Everything you see on the internet is real to a certain extent, you know what I mean? But how natural is it? How honest are we being with each other? And we don't necessarily need it all the time. I think everything is great in a balance, but I think once we can identify, oh, that was edited. Oh, that was modified. Oh, that was digitally distorted. I think it can help us be like, okay, it's not, I don't have to look like that. I don't have to be perfect. There are people that I know who are like, I won't post this picture because I need to put this filter or that filter or someone's going to see it. Well, that's the point, you deserve to be seen.
Listen, I would post a selfie with no makeup. Okay, will you post yours? I feel like that would encourage more people to present themselves and not feel so ashamed of who they are and their natural state, online.
For Black women, our experience with social media is another beat in a way. What advice do you have for us to find our space and peace online?
Find you. Find someone that you think is beautiful, but also looks like you, so that you're not surrounded by the mainstream of society's beauty standard. That was really crucial for me when I was younger. It was a lot of lighter skin, it was a lot of straighter hair, it was a lot of smaller bodies and on my feed and just kind of bombarding me on the internet. I thought, I'm going to use the algorithm to my advantage. I'm going to interact with Black girls, interact with bigger girls, interact with girls who have my hair texture. Do you know what I mean? Who have my skin type, who have my body type, and the algorithm started to work with me instead of against me. And now when I go online, all I see are beautiful Black women. I'm also feeling like I'm supporting them and I have a community with them. Young Black girls, find yourself, find you, find yourself beautiful online.
When do you feel your most beautiful?
When I'm truly naked, truly in myself, when I'm feeling myself in the mirror in the mornings. I'm singing to myself and talking to myself and hyping myself up on my little Afro out. I think that is when I feel the most beautiful, the sexiest. I guess y'all can tell from the internet, I'm always posting some nudes, but I think that's it. I really had to work to feel that way about myself. And I'm glad I'm here.