I just watched an interview of Alicia Keys on The Today Show talking about her decision to be makeup-free and be her true self. Below is the video, and I highly advise you to watch it before you continue reading.

Alicia brings up some points that really hit it out of the park for me. She’s being raw, truthful and honest. Her lack of makeup is so empowering. That’s how I want to feel: Empowered. What does it take to feel empowered?

I think that the key to empowerment is being comfortable with yourself. Once you feel strong in your own skin you will then see how you can go about the world with such a strong spirit and be truly unstoppable.

“We put so many limitations on ourselves, we put limitations on each other, society puts limitations on us. In a lot of ways I’m sick of it, I’m over it.” – Alicia Keys

That’s exactly it. Why are we letting other people decide our own self-worth? Why do we let society make choices for us? Why should we limit ourselves? We need to be our own person. Alicia says that we are unique, and we need to embrace each other as we are. Boom. Exactly.

Everything she said is completely relevant. One of my last blog posts was all about doing you and being yourself. Alicia mentioned the same thing in her interview, she says the most important thing is to do what feels good for you. “Just be who you are.”

“I just want to be honest to myself, and I think all of us need to be honest to ourselves.” Alicia’s 100% right. Be honest to who you want to be. Make desicons that will make YOU happy, and live the life that YOU want.

I also loved when Alicia finished off with saying “Do what makes you feel good, as opposed to try and please every-damn-body.” PREACH! She knows exactly who she wants to be and isn’t letting anyone tell her different. I love that. I inspire to be like Alicia and become a strong, empowered, honest-to-myself women.

Both men and women can take away from this post and Alicia’s message. Society puts pressure on both genders to act and be a certain way. But why? Just do your own thing and make yourself a priority.

Thank you Alicia for giving me a burst of inspiration to live by. Now go out, be inspired, feel empowered and stop trying to please everyone. Start to please yourself so that you can live your life to the fullest everyday.

-Liv