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Lizzo described her childhood insecurities and “bad flute playing” in an interview with the Los Angeles Times
The Grammy winner reflected on the criticism she faces as an adult, calling it fatphobic, racist, and sexist
Lizzo said she’d rather be “annoying than invisible” and laughed off public jokes about her
Lizzo is opening up about what life was like when she was a child.
“I grew up feeling very annoying,” the “Bitch” singer, 38, told the Los Angeles Times in a new interview. “It was a huge insecurity of mine. I’m the baby in the family, and I played probably the most annoying instrument to be bad at. Hearing someone be bad at the flute is a nightmare. And I was bad for at least two years.”
Lizzo plays the flute on ‘Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen’
Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo
But as Lizzo (born Melissa Jefferson) said, there’s something “powerful” about overcoming those insecurities. “I’ve had that anxiety shadow me my whole life, and I think I’m healing something in myself — in my inner child — that I didn’t even realize I’m healing,” she explained.
Looking back on the criticisms she gets, “I’ve heard everything I could possibly hear about me, so nothing can bother me now,” she said, sharing that she’s seen all the memes and jokes. “I’ve seen myself mashed up with Kamala Harris. I’ve seen me as a mannequin dummy. I’ve seen Chili’s baby back ribs slathered across my face,” she said.
“The general public, nine times out of 10, they think they’re laughing at me. I’m like, ‘Honey, I’m laughing with you laughing at me all the way to the bank.’ “
But on a serious note, Lizzo is aware that, as an outspoken Black woman, she faces public disparagement. “Black women get it even worse,” she said. “I think that most of the criticisms and dislike for me are fatphobic and racist and sexist.”
Lizzo performs on ‘Today’ in NYC on June 5, 2025.
Credit: GC Images
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“I’m a fat Black woman and I’m existing outside the parameters in which society thinks I should exist,” the Grammy winner explained. “I’ve always been a little too much — that’s my personality. But I’m like, ‘Am I too much or are you not enough?’ “
Now, Lizzo says, “I’d rather be annoying than invisible.”
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