Lizzo is all about self-acceptance and empowerment

I can���t remember exactly when I discovered Lizzo, but I do remember how refreshing I found her work. A self-professed ���big girl with a cute face,��� Lizzo is incredibly empowered and comfortable in her own skin. Having struggled with my own body image issues���including dealing with a decent amount of body shaming���I���ve found her ability to find beauty in everyone���including herself���inspirational.

Lizzo was born Melissa Jefferson in Detroit and grew up in Texas. Growing up, she played flute, listened to gospel, fronted an experimental rock band, and rapped alongside friends in a group called the ���Cornrow Clique.��� After bouncing around between a few different rap crews and R&B groups in Texas with little success, Lizzo decided to relocate to Minneapolis to focus on music full time. A friend offered her a place to stay and she began performing with an electro soul-pop duo, Lizzo & the Larva Ink, and an all-female rap and R&B group, The Chalice.

Sometimes things happen in unexpected ways. Such was the case when, in the midst of a bout of writer���s block, she discovered Lazerbeak���s album Lava Bangers. Inspired, she began writing lyrics over his music and decided to tweet at him, saying she���d love to work with him. Fast forward a tad and she released Lizzobangers with Lazerbeak on beats and Bon Iver���s Justin Vernon producing (no word if she paid him in Mike���s Hard Strawberry Lemonade though).

In her solo career, especially, Lizzo has spent a good deal of time at the intersection of gender, race, and politics. Skipping the obvious societal disadvantages of being black, people dismissed her for being a female rapper and people ignored her because she���s not skinny. Rather than letting it hold her back, however, Lizzo seems to harness that oppression as fuel. It seems to have become a source of her power and inspiration for her work. Consider her raw testament that introduces ���My Skin���:

Learning to love yourself and like learning to love your body is like a whole journey that I feel like every person, but more specifically, women, have to go through so I feel like doing this is a good way to kinda break through and kinda seal the last chapter of the ���learning to love��� and just loving.

The song is, quite literally, about learning to love the color of her skin:

I woke up in this, I woke up in this

In my skin

I can���t wash it away, so you can���t take it from me

My brown skin

I hope Oscar feels the same way as he grows up. I hope I can help him realize how beautiful he is; he certainly hears it a lot from me and Kelly, but he���s only three. I���m sure he���ll struggle with what it means to be the black child of two white parents, but I wish for him to never doubt his own worth, especially based on the color of his skin.

In an interview with Teen Vogue, Lizzo recalled ���When I was in high school, I was a big girl with a cute face. So dudes liked me secretly, but they didn���t like me publicly. I never had a boyfriend because they didn���t want to claim me.��� Now that she���s a ���star,��� she doesn���t feel like much has changed. ���So now in this industry, I���m a big girl with a cute face and some cute music and I���m still being liked secretly and not claimed publicly.���

That said, Lizzo does have a strong following and a lot of supporters. We appreciate her self-assured attitude. She exudes confidence and it���s infectious. ���It���s like, ���She���s comfortable in her own skin. Can I just put on her music and sing along and pretend I���m like that for a second?��� That���s the story I get from a lot of girls,��� Lizzo told Billboard. ���They say, ���Thank you for making this body-positive music. Thank you for being a body-positive performer, and thank you for being you.��� That helps me be comfortable. It���s a journey but I���m getting there.���

On ���Fitness,��� she celebrates her curves in her patently cheeky way:

Think about how I���m gonna feel when I step up on the catwalk

Think about how I���m gonna feel when I got that ass that don���t stop

That ass that don���t stop, that ass don���t stop

And think about how I���m gonna feel when I take it all off

But I don���t do this for you

That last line cuts right through, though, and clearly demonstrates how empowered she truly is: ���I don���t do this for you.���

Not all of Lizzo���s music is about self-acceptance though; it���s also about seeing beauty and value in everyone. I particularly love this verse from ���Boys���:

I like big boys, itty bitty boys

Mississippi boys, inner city boys

I like the pretty boys with the bow tie

Get your nails did, let it blow dry

I like a big beard, I like a clean face

I don���t discriminate, come and get a taste

From the playboys to the gay boys

Go and slay, boys, you my fave boys

Unsurprisingly, Lizzo���s also a champion for other ���big��� girls. Her dance crew, for instance������The Big Grrrls������are all considered ���plus size��� by American standards. That would cause most folks in the U.S. to write them off as a novelty act, a joke��� but damn they can dance. She once told Vogue ���I don���t really care about having the number-one album; I care about the influence. ��� I���d rather have 100K big girls on the field at the Super Bowl dancing, showing the world all we can do.���

From everything I���ve read, Lizzo still struggles���like we all do���with self esteem, but her ability to push through that and be a bold example for how we all should feel about our bodies just blows me away. She���s at once positive, playful, and powerful and I can���t help but feel inspired.