Dear Rihanna

Fenty founder, Rihanna, has recently done an interview with Vogue. The profile gets an intimate look into her life while she releases new additions to her Fenty line. Rihanna opens up to Chioma Nnadi when she goes over issues like gaining weight, keeping a low profile, and dating! This profile captured her personality as she is seen as a fun loving, hard-working, radiant human being.

But to Ms. Robyn Fenty, I have something to get off of my chest.

While reading the article, you say you don’t like to be complimented too much. Same. People can be really overbearing when complimenting and sometimes they go too far. “Wow you are so beautiful,” “thank you,” “no like I mean it, your skin is so radiant, ugh how could you even be human!?” These types mean well but they come off as creepy. I can’t imagine being famous and my picture constantly being taken, even when I’m not posing…where is my privacy? Within some of my most private moments, I’m either getting complimented or criticized when I’m only trying to hang out on my yacht or penthouse suit naked. I’m not rich or famous, but I get it. Sometimes a “wow you look nice today” is sufficient. 

When you talked about Drake. Same hunty. You know, there is always going to be that person you break up with but you don’t hate them (because that’s a waste of energy), but you also don’t want to waste your energy and act like things are cool. That feeling doesn’t always stop at exes either, this can be lost friends who we just naturally grow out of. 

When you talked about gaining weight… I felt that to my core! Sometimes you can feel your body saying “take a break” really subtly and then you ignore it. It’s when it has stopped screaming at you and completely stopped all protective functions, do we start listening. It’s okay to take a break, listen to your body! After all, you can’t pursue your dreams if you’re not taking care of the vessel that will appear at those meetings, shows, interviews, and grand-openings. 

“As a black woman, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do that,” you said when talking about creating such a diverse beauty line. THANK YOU! It truly isn’t easy to find make-up to make the complexities of black skin. My older sister is dark-skinned and she wears MAC all year round and I can see the intense difference from her natural skin to her beaten face. She has yet to join the Fenty Fanatics but from the tutorials of women who have much darker skin than her, her breath would be snatched from her lungs. 

Finally, I want to tell you about your humanity. You’re human but you’re also a powerhouse for many women out there. You laugh like we do, you get anxious like we do, and you are most certainly woke like some of us. You understand that life isn’t Instagram pictures but it’s what we wouldn’t capture and post. You understand that bodies feel tired and drained and you make the mistake of pushing it beyond the limits. Yeah you might wear Yves Saint-Laurent while some of us are wearing SheIn but you taught me, its all about how you werk it. Hold your head high, let the sun beam down into our skin, and whether our makeup is set or if we are wearing only our natural oils– we rock it with every grain of confidence we acquire and find. 

Thank you for teaching young and older men and women to not apologize for our grace but to embrace it. To surround ourselves with people who are accepting or to just take some time to accept ourselves. After I watched your tutorial, I hugged my phone– weird but true– your energy was felt down to my core. 

Sincerely,

a queen who’s adding you to the list of her role models. 

• DREAMER
• Fenty
• idol
• rihanna
• vogue