Over the years, Kelly Rowland has been open about her insecurities and lack of self-confidence in her skin, but now she’s sharing how affirmations helped her overcome self-doubt. The “Motivation” singer spoke with Hello Beautiful about the many challenges women face when looking in the mirror. “My biggest insecurity would probably be, one of the many, I usually challenge how smart I am,” she said.
When that happens, Kelly likes to send herself flowers and little notes that remind her of how smart she actually is. A technique I think we all can benefit from. But that’s not all. The singer also speaks positive affirmations to herself, which can also be a helpful tool.
“I counter it immediately, by telling myself, you are capable. You make great decisions. You are very smart. You make great decisions. Look at all the decisions you’ve made in the past,” she said. Speaking of the past, Kelly has talked about how as a dark skin woman, she struggled with her beauty.
In 2013, she did a red carpet interview where she revealed how Tina Knowles Lawson helped her love her “chocolatiness.” “You know what I had great women in my life to help me overcome that. I remember I went through a period where I didn’t embrace my ‘chocolatiness,’” she said. “I don’t know if that’s a word, but I didn’t embrace my chocolate lifestyle. Just being a chocolate, lovely brown skin girl and being proud of that.”
“I remember Tina Knowles, Bey’s mom and I remember being out in the sun and I was trying to shield myself from the sun and she said, ‘Are you crazy?’ She said ‘You are absolutely gorgeous,’ and she just told me how beautiful I was and how rare chocolate is and how gorgeous the skin is, all of this stuff. And I was just like ‘Yeah!’ Like a light went off.”
She added, “So between her and my mother and then me sitting out in the sun a little more, just to be a little more chocolate. You just embrace it. You embrace everything that you are as a woman, even your flaws too.”
That is the reason why the mother of two was moved by the February 2022 British Vogue issue that featured all dark skin, African women.
“I lost my mind and posted it immediately,” she said. “I’ll never forget looking at a Vogue cover years ago and I saw three white women — all blonde — and they said this is what beauty looks like.”
She continued, “This cover literally made my eyes well up because it’s like the moment did the complete opposite and he [Edward Enninful] has no idea what he did to my soul. It erased that memory out of my head. I want to genuinely write him a letter and thank him — it meant so much to me as a brown girl.”
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