“Being beautiful is about knowing that you are who you are and being proud of that,” says Lola Young. “Beauty is confidence.”
It’s a credo that helped fuel “Messy,” Young’s surprise hit off her latest album, This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway, an ode to unabashedly embracing the perceived imperfections that make us human. “It’s about [having] self-acceptance and not apologizing for it,” she says of the track, which went viral on TikTok at the end of last year. “I’m so proud of the reaction people have had to the song. They feel seen and heard, which is really important to me.”
Young, 24, started out performing at open-mic competitions in her native England as a teen, and her diaristic lyrics about toxic relationships, heartbreak, and self-love earned her a dedicated following.
The playlist she curated for this issue offers a range of perspectives on beauty through an eclectic mix of songs. She included Eminem’s anthemic “Beautiful,” about the importance of believing in yourself, and Beyoncé’s reflective “Pretty Hurts,” which takes aim at unrealistic beauty standards, along with Lana Del Rey’s haunting “Young and Beautiful,” about aging and enduring love. “Experiencing the world for a longer time is not an ugly thing; it’s powerful,” explains Young. “We need to talk more about the beauty of that.”
