Lizzo Is Living and Loving IRL

Beauty, as we once knew it, has flatlined. In the algorithm’s endless churn, we’ve gone from clean-girl to mob-wife to strawberry milk in less than a fiscal quarter. It’s time for a pendulum swing — a new era — less “what’s trending” and more “what’s true.” Not effortless, but intentional. Less about fitting in, more about showing up — for yourself, in your fullness, in full beat if you damn well please.

And if there’s one person who’s never once diluted her shine to fit a mold, it’s Lizzo.

The 37-year-old, Detroit-born singer/rapper/songwriter has won four Grammies, not to mention an Emmy (for her reality show Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls) and her fabulous new mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling is out now featuring guest appearances by Doja Cat and SZA — plus Lizzo’s best friends singing background vocals on “We Outside.” Her full-length album Love in Real Life is coming later this year.

The mixtape features her signature witticisms, body positivity and an attitude of zero fucks to give towards critics. She’s mostly removed herself from the conversation online, choosing instead to enjoy content involving food, animals, memes and Love Island. She now prefers to sit with people in-person instead of DMing with them.

She’s a fashion mogul, too, thanks to her brand Yitty. She’s dabbled in acting and is now developing a film project on the legendary but relatively little-known Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the guitar-strumming singer many credit with creating rock ‘n’ roll. Lizzo, already celebrated as a flautist, has been studying guitar to prepare for the role.

She’s got a healthy attitude about fame and seems to be having fun with her life whether she’s eating “chip salad” on tour or hanging out in Paris just for fun (“I ain’t got shit to do, I’m going to the palace of Versailles!”). She seems to be “just a bad bitch living her bad bitch life.” And we are definitely here for it.

What is your beauty regimen? What do you feel naked without?

I love my natural face. I look at my mother’s face and I’m like hell yeah. I feel very blessed to have great genes and I wanna show it. Why cover up what God gave you? People who were born with very nice skin, we take for granted the fact that we have to take care of that nice skin. Like when you buy a nice bag you don’t throw it around, ‘cause it’s a nice bag. Take care of the bag! One day the bag is going to get old and you’re going to say, “Oh no! This bag is dusty” I got to a point where I said, “I have nice skin but it can be nicer.” So I put effort into my skin care routine since maybe three years ago. Before that I was that girl that put some rose water, a little oil on and we’re good! Great!

As you get older, you travel, I’m in the sun. For my job, I have to have tons of makeup on. I want to have as much aftercare and pre-care skin care and when I leave the house, I need to at least do that. A little bit of paw paw oil on my lips to keep them hydrated. I can’t be crusty. So I always keep a fragrance-free lotion. I use this very thick eczema cream.I got a travel size one of that and a giant size, too.

The title of your mixtape, My Face Hurts From Smiling — where does that come from? Some of the lyrics on the mixtape are kind of like fuck you, people and some of them are happy.

It came from a specific moment while I was making the mixtape. I was sitting in my room and I had just flown in my best friends. That’s when you know some shit is going down. My best friends came to record gang vocals.They were recording their parts and we were getting hype and I was just so happy my cheeks started cramping up from smiling so much. So I said, “My face hurts from smiling.” I just said that phrase and it kinda stuck with me over the next few days. I was going to name it Valid Crash Out, but I was like, this is better! There’s so much fucking joy and pain happening simultaneously. People are trying to seek joy so aggressively, and this was me just joining the conversation.

I love it. Now, your best friends, have they been your best friends since before you were famous?

My best friend, I’ve known her since fourth grade. We were playing flute together in fifth grade. I called her like, Emergency, I need you!

The name of the new album is Love In Real Life. What does love in real life mean for you now?

My relationship with the internet has evolved in such a way where I don’t even feel connected to the conversations on the internet anymore. I don’t keep up with nobody’s life. I don’t know what the fuck is going on most of the time. I’m there looking at memes and animal videos, of course Love Island videos, and food, so I don’t know shit. And meanwhile the rest of the world I think is very connected online.

A lot of the love that people are validating themselves with lives within the online space. A lot of dialogue and relationships exist in the online space. Meanwhile, I have completely pivoted, and I prefer to be sitting down next to you, holding you, talking to you, getting a drink with you. Rather than DMing you or keeping up with a story in the digital space instead of real life. Love only exists in real life. I got one million likes for a photo, which I haven’t done since 2021, honey. The internet has changed — the algorithm is fucked, but you get a million likes on a photo that don’t mean shit! You get a million likes on a photo that means to me ”omg everybody loves me!” But you don’t know where those likes are from. The likes could be hate likes.

Hate likes are a reality.

I need to prioritize my fan base in real life, my friends in real life, my relationships in real life, myself in real life. Like, even down to not using a filter when I look at myself, because I don’t want my phone to tell me if I’m pretty or not. I want my mirror to tell me that.

In one of your songs on your latest record you say “I’ve been fat, I’ve been skinny, but I’ve always been this pretty.” You also say “I been fat, I been skinny, bitches still ain’t fuckin’ with me.” How are you feeling? You seem like you have a really good healthy attitude about body image.

I’ve always been that girl. I’ve always been an exhibitionist and a nudist online. I’ll post artful, skillful nudes online, and now I’m probably a bit more modest than

I used to be, only because I feel like everybody’s naked on the internet now. I would rather give you a fashion moment or give you some intentionality than just show my ass

for showing my ass’ sake. When I was in a bigger body, showing my ass was an act of rebellion. It was radical. It was a conversation. I’m not considered skinny by anyone’s measure. Showing my ass at this point feels redundant unless I’m saying something.

I watched your TikTok with you and SZA like you were very cute in white lace leggings and SZA had her ass hanging out and you both looked amazing. When you’re performing with someone like that, do you guys coordinate your looks in advance?

There’s no method to that. We’re just two bad bitches living our bad bitch life.

The latest project was described to me officially as an “unexpected rap mixtape.”

I don’t think anyone expected me to start rapping, nor did they expect this kind of music or this project this soon. Not even my label! I’m rapping because I felt like rapping. I’ve been told not to rap for so long that I’m about to do everything people told me I couldn’t do.

You’re the founder and CEO of Yitty. Tell me about that.

The seed of Yitty was planted years and years ago. I was looking around and I was just like, “Yo why are there only three colors and why is there still this feeling of shame around the idea of Shape wear and girdles and why is it painful? Why does it hurt?” So my dream was to create an inclusive lifestyle brand that was shapewear-centric at first but we have expanded into lifestyle/ sleepwear/activewear.

I wanted to create something that was versatile and exciting and fun and we added bright colors and patterns to our shape wear which, nobody was doing and now I see everybody doing. No shade! You’re welcome.

I feel very, very proud of Yitty and what we’ve accomplished in just three fucking years low-key. I’m proud of the impact that we’ve had on the conversation around shape wear and the industry.

What other dreams do you have besides music?

I’ve been approached about acting. I’ve gotten the opportunity to produce and star in the Sister Rosetta Tharpe film.

You’re kidding! That’s amazing! Who’s styling that? Her style was beyond.

I know!

The coats!

The coats, honey! I’m so excited to dive into her world and play her up! Because I do want to give her a certain mythology. She deserves to be canonized.

Absolutely. I’m so happy to hear this. I’m so excited!

This is my first major film role, a starring role. It’s early days, but I’m learning guitar right now.. She was the greatest guitar player of all time — I mean she literally invented the electric guitar. I’m not doing it because I want an Oscar. I’m doing it and I said this about The Big Girls Show. I’m not doing it to win an Emmy. I want to make Sister Rosetta Tharpe a household name as big as Elvis. When people talk about rock ‘n’ roll it begins with her.

On TikTok you were making some kind of chips after the club. What are your go-to after-the-club snacks or on-the-road snacks?

That was a crazy one, honey. I pulled out the black truffle chips — it was delicious. You have it with a little spicy jam, it was a hit. Really though, I like to eat, Mickey! I like to eat. I like to think I created a thing called the chip salad. I put it on the internet years and years and years ago. We were at a gas station on tour. You grab your favorite chips. Mind you, you need a salt, an acid, a fat, and whatever the other fucking one was. You need a hot Cheeto, you need a Funyun, you need maybe a sweet and salty popcorn mix and put it all together in one bag, mix it up and then you eat a chip salad.

Are you planning a tour for when this album drops?

I am going to tour, yes. I love touring. Hell yeah.

What do you love about it?

I love traveling, but I think the most important thing is that “love in real life” thing. When I get the opportunity to perform for the people who really love me, who really love

my music, and I can look them in the eyes and thank them every night through song… there are songs that I wrote that I always tear up while performing. I transport myself and sing to them because it is for them. On the internet, everybody doesn’t really love

you, some of them are just there to see you fail. The opportunity to connect with people who buy tickets, show up, find babysitters, know they are going to be late to school in the morning just to see you perform. There’s nothing like that. There’s no feeling or type of love that compares to that. I’m so grateful for that.

Are there songs — for me it’s “Good as Hell” — that the people who love you go crazy for?

You know what’s so crazy that goes off every time is “To Be Loved.” I never think it’s going to go off because it wasn’t really a big hit in America, but “Am I Ready” —

they go crazy! Then when I don’t do it they’re like “Why didn’t you do it?!” Bitch, because I wrote the song too high, that key change kills me!