<p style="text-align: left;">Ladies, have any of you felt like your outfit or your hair or lack of make-up took away from your beauty even though their purpose is to enhance your own? Well, many of us don&#8217;t recognize how naturally gorgeous we are thanks to these insane body and beauty standards nowadays.</p>
<p>Well, Alicia Keys how much she could relate in that regard and decided to chuck the deuces to her makeup. You may have noticed that she has been photographed lately in her own flawless skin with no painted enhancements, and now she&#8217;s opening up about why she likes it better this way.</p>
<p>The songstress took to LennyLetter.com to pen her thoughts in a blog called &#8220;Alicia Keys: Time To Uncover:&#8221;</p>
<p> ;<br />
&#8220;Before I started my new album, I wrote a list of all the things that I was sick of. And one was how much women are brainwashed into feeling like we have to be skinny, or sexy, or desirable, or perfect. One of the many things I was tired of was the constant judgment of women. The constant stereotyping through every medium that makes us feel like being a normal size is not normal, and heaven forbid if you&#8217;re plus-size. Or the constant message that being sexy means being naked.&#8221;</p>
<p> ;<br />
Keys then realized that most of her new music contained metaphors about hiding and wanted to face her fear of finding out who she really was at her core.</p>
<p> ;<br />
&#8220;I found my way to meditation, and I started focusing on clarity and a deeper knowing of myself. I focused on cultivating strength and conviction and put a practice in place to learn more about the real me.&#8221;<br />
Still, the singer had to pass the ultimate test of truly being comfortable in her own skin and she was met with this test at a photoshoot for her new album.<br />
&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t until I walked into one of my first shoots for my new album recently that the issue was front and center again. I&#8217;d just come from the gym, had a scarf under my baseball cap, and the beautiful photographer Paola (never met a Paola I didn&#8217;t like) said, &#8220;I have to shoot you right now, like this! The music is raw and real, and these photos have to be too!&#8221;<br />
She says that her state during this shoot was &#8220;the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt.&#8221;<br />
&#8220;I felt powerful because my initial intentions realized themselves. My desire to listen to myself, to tear down the walls I built over all those years, to be full of purpose, and to be myself! The universe was listening to those things I&#8217;d promised myself, or maybe I was just finally listening to the universe, but however it goes, that&#8217;s how this whole #nomakeup thing began. Once the photo I took with Paola came out as the artwork for my new song &#8220;In Common,&#8221; it was that truth that resonated with others who posted #nomakeup selfies in response to this real and raw me.</p>
<p>I hope to God it&#8217;s a revolution.</p>
<p>&#8216;Cause I don&#8217;t want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing.&#8221;<br />
Kudos to Alicia for being the latest artist to take that leap for natural beauty in the entertainment industry! Whoever set these beauty standards is disturbed, because she looks absolutely stunning.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;d like, you can check out the full letter <a href="http://www.lennyletter.com/style/a410/alicia-keys-time-to-uncover/">Here</a>!</p>
<p>TSR STAFF: Talia O. @theclosetratchet on Instagram &; @tallyohhh on Twitter!<br />
Source: http://www.lennyletter.com/style/a410/alicia-keys-time-to-uncover/</p>
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