Lizzo opens up about “coming to terms” with body dysmorphia

Since her single “Truth Hurts” dropped in 2017, Lizzo has become equally adored for her era-defining bangers and her attitude about loving, flaunting, and owning her body—and inspiring others to do the same. But in her January 22nd Rolling Stone cover story, Lizzo reveals that she wasn’t always so confident in her skin.

In the magazine, “the high priestess of self-empowerment” opens up about her journey toward body positivity. Like so many of us, Lizzo struggled with her self-image and self-esteem as a teenager and early 20-something. Her struggle was made worse “by a toxic lover’s desire for a thin girlfriend,” and she reveals that it took “years of work to unlearn the ways society had told her to hate herself.”

But like many a great artist, Lizzo harnessed her pain, confronted it, and turned it into something beautiful.

To start with, there was the ballad “My Skin,” which appeared on her 2015 album Big Grrrl Small World. With lyrics like, “I love you, don’t forget it, you beautiful Black masterpiece!” the song became a personal anthem of self-acceptance both for Lizzo herself and for legions of fans of all races, genders, and identities struggling with similar issues.

Lizzo also acknowledges her role in the body positivity movement, whose vision of a world in which all people, with all kinds of bodies, are seen, embraced, and celebrated by the culture aligns with her own values. “The body-positive movement is doing the same thing. We’re growing together, and it’s growing pains, but I’m just glad that I’m attached to something so organic and alive,” she says.

But Lizzo also made clear that she’s “so much more” than a beacon of body positivity.

She’s a musician first and foremost, and she says that that’s what “she wants to be celebrated for. And there’s a whole lot to celebrate. “Truth Hurts,” which she released in 2017, finally topped the Billboard charts in 2019. Also in 2019, Time named her “Entertainer of the Year.” And, hello, she was in Hustlers, one of our favorite movies of the year.

This weekend, Lizzo is up for eight 2020 Grammy Awards—which, BTW, makes her the most-nominated artist this year—and she’s also performing at the show. We’re so on board with continuing to give her all the accolades she deserves as an artist, though we’re confident she’ll be looking good as hell through it all.