For those who aren’t aware, Lizzo is not a newbie. Her career has amounted to years of hard work, a period of self-doubt and sleepless nights. While covering Elle‘s latest issue, the “Truth Hurts” artist speaks on the importance of self-love.

“I take self-love very seriously. And I take it seriously because when I was younger, I wanted to change everything about myself,” she admitted. “I didn’t love who I was. And the reason I didn’t love who I was is because I was told I wasn’t lovable by the media, by [people at] school, by not seeing myself in beauty ads, by not seeing myself in television…by lack of representation. My self-hatred got so bad that I was fantasizing about being other people. But you can’t live your life trying to be somebody else. What’s the point?”

Elsewhere during the interview, Lizzo shockingly admits that there were many times that she wanted to give up. “I just felt like I was throwing music into the world and not even making a splash,” she said. “I said, ‘If I stop making music now, nobody would f–king care.’” Thankfully, Lizzo decided that she shouldn’t quit. “So I just made the decision to keep going as an artist,” she said.

As her career continues to skyrocket, Lizzo is living life unapologetically. More recently, she performed at the 2019 Made in America festival. During her performance, Beyoncé was seen rocking out to her lyrics, which Lizzo is very proud of, to say the least. In addition to Queen Bey enjoying her music, Nicki Minaj is also proud of Lizzo’s success. After the 31-year-old’s “Truth Hurts” record secured the No. 1 spot, Minaj shared words of encouragement.

“Congratulations @lizzo on going #1. You are so extremely multi-talented,” Minaj wrote. Cardi B also chimed in to congratulate Lizzo. “The fact that Lizzo a couple months ago felt underestimated and now she have a #1!!!!B—H! take that!take that ! Makes me emotional It’s the best feeling in the world,” Cardi wrote.

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