Alicia Keys has had it with body shaming and beauty standards!
The 35-year-old singer recently wrote an essay detailing her feelings towards the overwhelming pressure individuals face to be “perfect.” Keys wrote the essay for the latest issue of Lenny, initially speaking about the moments “where some piece of you realizes that to fit in or be thought of as beautiful, you have to cover up to be a bit closer to perfect.”;
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Keys explains how she found it difficult go from the streets of New York to the harsh standards of the entertainment industry. “”;I started, more than ever, to become a chameleon,” she writes. “Never fully being who I was, but constantly changing so all the “they’s’ would accept me.”
The “Girl on Fire” singer first had her epiphany when she began to work on her new album. “Before I started my new album, I wrote a list of things that I was sick of. And one was how much women are brainwashed into feeling like we have to be skinny, or sexy, or desirable, or perfect,”; Keys explains. “One of the many things I was tired of was the constant judgment of women.”;
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In hopes of freeing herself from her insecurities, Keys decided to learn meditation, a practice that eventually helped her when she was asked to participate in a makeup-free photo shoot by Paola Kudacki.
“Instantly, I became a bit nervous and slightly uncomfortable. My face was totally raw. I had on a sweatshirt!” She adds: “I swear it is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt.”;