Lizzo never fails to challenge outdated beauty standards and inspire women to embrace and celebrate their bodies. The Grammy Award-winning singer is notorious for her chart-topping bangers and living her best life unapologetically. It’s no wonder she was chosen to grace People’s Women Changing the World issue.

Along with her cover, which features beautiful close-up shots of the “Truth Hurts” singer, People picked Lizzo’s brain about finding her power and her body icon status.

“I think I have a really hot body!” she told People. “And I’m embracing that more and more every day.”

The powerful belter goes on to explain that she’s had to create a standard of beauty that fits her.

“And what I’m doing is stepping into my confidence and my power to create my own beauty standard,” she said. “And one day that will just be the standard.”

Her confidence translates through everything she does, including capturing her authentic self through photos posted to her Instagram. On Feb. 5, the singer captioned a nude picture posted to her page “Art.” Most praised the picture, while others, unsurprisingly, were haters.

“I had to blaze a trail,” Lizzo said of the way she moves through her career and life. “There was no Lizzo before Lizzo.”

The “Juice” singer also goes into her childhood in the cover story. Born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, Lizzo was raised in Houston, where her parents were candid about the realities of being Black in America.

“I don’t think my dad wanted to tell us about the gruesome murders that happen to Black people all the time,” she said. “But Black parents have this responsibility to let their children know what can happen. They taught me at a very young age how America treats Black people. How it treats Black women. And I saw very quickly how we treat fat people.”

Lizzo took that awareness and challenged it head on in her music. But while the singer is proud to dismantle traditional standards of beauty, she’s over the rhetoric surrounding her body.

“Okay, we all know I’m fat,” she said. “I know I’m fat. It doesn’t bother me. I like being fat, and I’m beautiful and I’m healthy. So can we move on?”

The singer has raked up accolades and millions of fans, and she knows that she’s worth the praise.

“I deserve the spotlight,” Lizzo continued. “I deserve the attention. I’m talented, I’m young, I’m hot. You know? And I’ve worked hard.”

Lizzo’s cover girl moment comes after the star’s performance at the iHeartRadio’s Living Black! event, during which Black excellence was on full display. Lizzo stole the show with a poignant rendition of her song “If You Love Me.” The performance encapsulated what the singer, and her newest cover, is all about.

“BLACK BEAUTY QUEENS. WE LOVE YOU. WE SEE YOU. AND YOU DESERVE TO BE PROTECTED,” she captioned a post of the performance.

PEOPLE Magazine

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