If there is one woman in the entire world that I absolutely adore and love with very fiber in my being, it’s Rihanna aka BadGalRiRi. She embodies everything as a woman that I love: beauty, intelligence, honesty, attitude, vocals, etc. I can go on and on about Rihanna; from her remarkable fashion sense to her having hitting those insane notes with her powerful voice. There is one thing I can say about Rihanna that most people may question me on and that is I consider Rihanna to be a role model.
Role Model and Rihanna are not synonyms and don’t really belong in the same sentence, but I personally consider her a role model for something that most people in the music industry aren’t: true to themselves.
No one can say that Rihanna is fake and cocky because if you did, you really haven’t acknowledged the realness that she exudes. Rihanna, the woman that I have loved and continue to love since the age of 7 has been true and real to herself and the world. Most people in Hollywood change to impress their PR people, their fans, the entire world, but Rihanna isn’t one of those people.
As a young adult especially in high school, you begin to wonder who you really are and try to mold yourself into a million things to impress other people whether it be your family or your friends or try to ‘belong’. Speaking from experience, it is really hard to find yourself and stay true to yourself with everyone’s opinions especially in high school, but what has helped and partly shaped the woman I am today is because of Rihanna. She has proven that being yourself no matter what everyone else says pays off in the long run. She has and continues to help me whenever I begin to question who I am. With Rihanna, I know that I should be nothing else, but myself.
Now Rihanna has gone on the record herself multiple times and said that she is not a role model and some adults agree with that; with reasons like ‘she smokes weed’ and ‘too sexual and explicit’, but they are forgetting the bigger picture: she doesn’t give a blank about anybody’s opinions and she lives to please herself, not anyone else. There are very few things I don’t agree with Rihanna on. One being her weed smoking, the second is she saying she isn’t a role model.
Rihanna is a great example of a role model for young women; teaching women that they are in control of their bodies, to always be yourself and never apologize or criticize yourself for that. She is also a woman that has gone through domestic violence and teaches other women that they don’t have to allow their past faults to diminish themselves as women.
When I look to some other female artists, I don’t see realness. I find them unapproachable or unrealistc; I find them fronting just for the world and not allowing their fans get a glimpse of who they really are. As a part of #RihannaNavy, I get real vibes from Rihanna; I can see her for who she really is, not just a body or a voice that everyone else loves but a real person. Like Drake said on Sunday night: “Some artists need to play a character to achieve success; some need to downplay their own natural instincts to blend in. She succeeds by doing something no one in this industry does, which is being herself.”
This is my sort of love note for Rihanna to tell her that she is a role model, an anti role model if you will, for everyone from young women to adults. She as a woman who knows who is she, lives her life on her rules, and not society’s, and doesn’t care for the opinions of the media or anyone else (okay she cares for her mother’s opinion, that I know). Rihanna is someone who is sincere, true, and humble and for that, I am proud to say that Rihanna is my role model.
#NavyRDie
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