“I don’t want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul.”
Alicia Keys is nonconformist and unapologetic about it.
Her makeup free campaign started last year and one would have thought she’d give in soon enough but no, she’s going stronger and gaining grounds and gracing magazine covers in 2017. Yes, we emphasize 2017 because the world is overrun with makeup products, makeup artistes, plastic surgeries and everything else that helps women to enhance their beauty.
Here’s how she got inspired to tread this path: “Every time I left the house, I would be worried if I didn’t put on makeup,” so she decided to quit and told herself “that I can be my own gorgeous, beautiful, individual, unique self”.
Alicia hasn’t stopped since then, standing brave and beautiful on red carpets at all the major events, sitting pretty next to her very supportive husband, Swizz Beats and taking the magazine covers one after the other, first with Allure magazine and now Glamour, she preaches the message of unlearning most of the things we’ve been made to believe.
When questioned about what she would tell her younger self, in the magazine interview, Alicia Keys said: “There is this fallacy about how women are catty, that we’re all in competition with each other. I’d say: As opposed to getting swept up in jealousy, use that pang to give you an indication of what you are looking for…don’t know if we tell women great news about themselves enough. You’d be surprised how often a young woman doesn’t hear positive things about herself—not in her home, not at school. It’s hard to create a beautiful image for yourself“.
For Alicia, how you look is your statement, how you claim yourself regardless of the world choosing to hate or love you for it. She says, “There’s something so powerful about being my own gorgeous, beautiful, individual, unique self”.