Alicia Keys refuses to leave anything to the imagination. 'Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing,' she writes in this month's Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter.
In the essay she discusses struggling with her appearance and the expectations that come with womanhood and fame.'I was finally uncovering just how much I censored myself, and it scared me. Who was I anyway? Did I even know HOW to be brutally honest anymore? Who I wanted to be?'
Alicia was inspired by her new album cover's photo shoot, where photographer Paola Kudacki suggested photographing Keys arriving straight from the gym in nothing but workout gear and a baseball cap. 'The music is raw and real, and these photos have to be too!' Kudacki said. 'I don't want to cover up anymore,' Keys wrote, and the #NoMakeup hashtag was born and has already accrued over 12 million search results.
Keys' aim is to empower us all after becoming sick of 'how much women are brainwashed into feeling like we have to be skinny, or sexy, or desirable, or perfect.'
She certainly is sticking to her word by working the press and performance circuit makeup-free. 'This was the harsh, judgmental world of entertainment and my biggest test yet. I started, more than ever, to become a chameleon,' she writes in Lenny Letter. 'It is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt,' she said of the shoot. 'I focused on cultivating strength and conviction and put a practice in place to learn more about the real me.'
We are with you, Alicia
Listen to her new single, In Common, below.
Images: RCA/Paola Kudacki
Instagram.com/Aliciakeys
Instagram.com/PaolaKudacki
