Lizzo has come a long way since her days when sleeping in her car was sometimes her only option. But according to a recent interview with Elle UK, she never imagined being a pop star was even possible due to her size. While she recognized there were “bigger” women in the industry such as Missy Elliott and Queen Latifah, she called them “the exception to the rule.”
She continued, “I think it was more of, like, an insecurity. Nearly every star I saw on stage was thinner and light-skinned. And they didn’t look like me. […] I always felt like, even if the song is great, people wouldn’t want to hear it coming from me. So I thought, if I have other people on stage, too, that will take the focus off me a little bit.
“I know people want to look like me now. But I’m talking about what it was like in my formative years. I wasn’t really set up to believe that I was desirable. For me, being a pop star – part of it is people either want to be you or be with you. And I didn’t feel like I had any of those qualities.”
It was tough to get to that point, though. But Lizzo was ultimately able to manifest confidence. As she explained, “In doing the fake it till you make it method, I began attracting a lot of people who thought I was beautiful.” — which included her best friend.
“She’s always been like, ‘You look good, you look beautiful.’ In the past, a lot of people were my friend because they knew that having me around would make them feel better about themselves. But she genuinely thought I was beautiful and helped me believe it and verbalize it out loud.”
Lizzo has become a huge advocate of the body positivity movement but catches a lot of flak in the process. Last month, the 34-year-old addressed men who use her stage name as an insult to other women.
“Dudes be ugly w no bitches talking bout ‘oK LiZzO’ as an insult in girls comments,” she wrote on Twitter at the time. “I’m beautiful rich & get immaculate dick… ISSA COMPLIMENT. If u can’t make it past the cheeks, just say that.”
