Alicia Keys has become an extraordinary role model for self-love and mental health. The “Girl on Fire” singer has changed the game silently, but surely, starting with herself.
Alicia Keys was always a great singer. Her vocal range is impressive, and “no one” could deny it. Yes, pun intended. But besides her undeniable talent, isn’t Alicia Keys incredibly underrated?
But what makes Alicia Keys so great is that she worked on herself and became a great role model for self love. Alicia understood the pressure for every day women when it comes to unreachable beauty standards. So she decided to make a change, starting with herself. So she took a stance and stopped using makeup, basically, at all, since 2016.
She didn’t spend fortunes on makeup artists, and kept her hair natural, showing little girls that natural hair is beautiful. That no amount of Photoshop can change who you are, if you’re not a good person.
For some, maybe was not a big deal. But in an industry that’s focused so much on how someone looks, Alicia’s move was huge. Of course, she still wears some makeup here and there, but she now opts for a more natural look. Which doesn’t cover all her imperfections. She fully embraces it, and that makes her real.
In a recent interview with Glamour UK, she spoke about her decision to stop wearing makeup. “Make-up was a big thing for me; I had been wearing it since I was, like, 16 years old. And then, as I got into the music world, it was what you did every day to do your television, or to do your shoot. So, I did it because I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do. And I realised I became addicted to it; I didn’t feel comfortable without it.”
Alicia also commented on how she didn’t feel comfortable dressing up.
“The pressure to try to [get me to] wear more dressy things… that just wasn’t who I was and it will never be who I am. And even as I grow now, and can truly feel comfortable in multiple ways and styles, I still am who I am. So, I was happy that I was pretty strong from the beginning. And my management early on was always very supportive about that.
“If anything, I started changing more because I was growing more later on. Not because somebody said, ‘You should change.’ But you do internalise what’s around you a lot. I think when you see images and standards of beauty, you can automatically think to yourself, ‘Oh, isn’t that what beautiful is? Shouldn’t I emulate that?’ [There are] all these standards you can subscribe to, without even realising it.”
But besides that, Alicia has been very upfront about working with yourself, and loving yourself. Recently, she collaborated for 21-days meditation challenge with Deepak Chopra about finding and connecting with your feminine side, and activating your divine feminine.
Besides working on herself, Alicia also helps other people. She is the co-founder and Global Ambassador of Keep a Child Alive, a non-profit organization that provides medicine, orphan care, and social support to families with HIV and AIDS in Africa and India.
Alicia also hosts and is the musical director of Keep A Child Alive’s annual fundraising gala called the Black Ball. Every year, artists and other celebrities come together to support and perform to raise funds for the cause.
