SZA
I was a gymnast for 13 years, so I was heavy into sports.Collection: Sports
I live in my imagination, so sometimes movies help me get lost. I feel like I'm in it.Collection: Movies
I just think I have too much anxiety to listen to music. Sometimes it feels like noise, and sometimes it's so affecting that I can't recover from it.Collection: Music
I think music is honest and will make you do honest things.Collection: Music
I just make music however I feel and pray that it connects, and if it does, I'm super thankful. I think genres are more for other people, not for yourself.Collection: Thankful
I definitely want to get into environmental science and environmental politics, learning a lot more and preserving what's left of the world. That's such a sacred circle to be in. I'd love to contribute to that.Collection: Science
It starts with trusting yourself, even if people are telling you you're too young to trust yourself.Collection: Trust
My mom was an executive at AT&T, a global account lady. I have no idea what she did. I just know she was never home and speaks several languages.Collection: Mom
My mom didn't let me eat sugar or candy until I was older.Collection: Mom
I have an abundant amount of love in my life, and I'm grateful for that.Collection: Love
My mom is a Pan-Africanist. My dad is still Orthodox Sunni Muslim, but he's super fun. He worked in television for years. He was a Black Panther.Collection: Dad
There's something different about growing up black and Muslim, especially in New Jersey. It's like when I left the mosque and I left my dad, I felt unprotected, but I also felt a weird sense of pride, like I was involved in this other way of living that was cool to me.Collection: Dad
My parents are really conservative. My dad is Muslim, and my mom is the most conservative woman you've ever met. They're very aristocratic in the most quaint suburban way.Collection: Mom
I don't feel ashamed to be loud, which is an argument I've had with lots of men, who thought I was too sassy and unladylike.Collection: Men
You can take care of your body, and it will low-key show you respect in turn.Collection: Respect
I feel good being a black woman; I've always felt good.Collection: Good
I love food, so having a lot of food allergies now and just having a really sensitive body, it forces me to be very mindful and conscious and eat when I'm hungry, not just when I'm bored, and just really slow down. Everything in moderation.Collection: Food
I'm very into details, so I watch movies just for the details.Collection: Movies
My music is touching people in whatever spaces they need to be touched in.Collection: Music
I learned everything the hard way - like, literally, everything. I know that God does that to people that he has lessons for. I just wish that I had learned less extreme lessons.Collection: God
When your parents regulate everything you hear and everything you intake, it forces you to get creative in other ways. It sparked the writing bug and the very overactive imagination. Because I've had a lot of time by myself and a lot of time isolated from regular culture, I created my own.Collection: Imagination
Music is my form of cleansing and introspection, so I have to grow in order to accomplish it.Collection: Music
I love empowering women. I think it's crazy: if you ever try to belittle women, you're playing yourself - I ride with whoever rides with me.Collection: Women
Every day I grapple between 'I'm going to get married' and 'I'm going to spend the rest of my life alone with a poodle.'Collection: Alone
The album that defined my childhood was probably Ella Fitzgerald's 'Greatest Hits,' whereas my half-sister, who didn't have the same conservative upbringing, was listening to Cash Money and crunk.Collection: Money
I've always loved playing with hair. I used to want dreads like Lauryn Hill, but my mom wouldn't let me.Collection: Mom
Don't get discouraged with your skin when it doesn't do what you want it to do... Give it some time. That's the only way to get to know yourself.Collection: Time
I don't have any control over what actually happens except for that I have full control over my will for myself, my intention, and why I'm there. That's all that matters.
I don't want to speak negativity into existence.
I make bad decisions frequently. They're fun.
Control is not real, and I'm really understanding that every day. It's about the acceptance of relinquishing control that makes it powerful for you.
I want to excel at something, to follow through, to not be afraid.
I drink a lot of water.
In one way, I want to heal people.
Especially when I'm nervous, my mind is running a mile a minute. My ADHD speaks for me before I can speak for me.
I wasn't popular in high school; I had no friends.
Reading makes me so sleepy. Honestly, I'm a visual learner.
As long as you're being honest and there's intention in what you're doing, then I think that energy permeates your field and becomes like a homing signal for other people with like energies.
I try to think of myself as a chic fishing grandpa aesthetically.
I worry so much. Like, 'Damn, how can I be excellent?' But it's a journey.
It's so hard for me to focus on things for a long time that I'm not incredibly passionate about.
I do a lot of strange things.
I think we all do: I think we wonder if we're supposed to be here, if we're doing the right thing, if we even want to be here. At least, I do all the time.
My parents wanted me to go to school.
It's interesting to all of a sudden be considered valuable.
How many thick black women are there singing whatever I'm singing, surrounded by rappers, but also from the suburbs? I can't really judge someone else for judging me!
I don't think I'm inherently feminist. I think the universe wants me to be feminist, and I think I resonate with that. I think it just chose me to be this female energy... thing. And I'm very drawn to female energy, but I don't really have any prerequisites in feminism. I just roll with it.
My anxiety stems from my lack of control no matter what.
I used to be very revenge-motivated, but that's just because I'm a Scorpio. Now I'm more so, like, practice honesty just because it makes you feel better.
I have a really strong gluten allergy, and I'm pretty lactose-intolerant, like, in a big way, but I love cheese.