Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Meghan Trainor

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: 

Meghan Trainor

In my own, personal, big gay church, there is a wing dedicated to Those of the Heart. These are the singers, songwriters and muses who have spent a lifetime capturing various aspects of the human condition. Frequently, due to the whims of the music industry, their lives were not always their own... but they persevered... ultimately remaining true to their roles as seers of the heart.

One such sincere soul?

Meghan Trainor!

You see...

There once was a girl from Nantucket...

Well, actually, a small island off Nantucket.

Who went on to become one of the biggest entertainers of her time!

Coming from a musical family, she began her career as a songwriter at the age of 17...  that is until she wrote a song which the industry said only she could sing! And so she did...

And the earth moved. 

She began a movement... a wave of body acceptance, all thanks to a really great pop song.

Now... it hasn't all been a constant leap forward. The backlash actually was quite fierce.

Seems she may have said some things... for she's very real and speaks from the heart - even when she doesn't quite understand the question. Remembers, she's very young and from a tiny island off the coast of Nantucket. Feminism? Well, she wasn't quite sure, but - because it was very clear that they had issues with her - she certainly was not one of them! 

And maybe her concept of boy/girl relationships was a bit old-fashioned. But keep in mind, she's very young and rather naïve. She didn't have a great deal of life experience to draw from.

And of course they all flipped out when she began to lose a bit of weight - traitor? No. You keep up with her work schedule, and you, too, will watch as the pounds melt away.

But the dust did settle. She's now much more savvy, handling interviews with aplomb (and a bit of handholding). And having married and had two kids, her views on relationships have grown up quite a bit, as has her music.

Through it all, one thing she's always been sure of is her love for the LGBT community. On that, she's never wavered. 

Today, this diva is a veteran performer with a faithful fanbase who jive with her vibe, for she's still working hard, asking people to accept themselves and others just the way they are. 

What the future holds is anybody's guess... but, with her talent? Skies the limit.

The gospel according to her

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips. 

The topic? Body Type

"I grew up a chubby girl. I had two brothers. My parents loved us, they just fed us whatever we wanted."

"I was always a little insecure. I had brothers that played football, so I was just a straight-up tomboy for a minute. I didn't know makeup and hair stuff. My friends had to tell me what a straightener was. I didn't know fashion or any of that until the label gave me a stylist."

 

"I went from being a casual songwriter who wore big sweatshirts and leggings every day to someone telling me I was going to be a pop star who's on camera every day. I didn't know a lot about fashion because I had kind of given up on my relationship with clothes. Now, I have a stylist that's shown me the right places I can show off my body - but I still stick to my comfort zone in fittings. I want to be covered and I think I can be sexy fully covered. That learning process has been helping me with my confidence. And I follow actresses and singers who post on social media about being confident."

"I wasn't strong enough to have an eating disorder. I tried to go anorexic for a good three hours. I ate ice and celery, but that's not even anorexic. And I quit. I was like, 'Ma, can you make me a sandwich? Like, immediately.'"

"A lot of people in the beginning of my career would say stuff to me in person like, ‘Well, you’re much skinnier than I thought you’d be,’ or just weird backhanded comments. So, I’ve had a very weird relationship with my body for a lot of years, especially because I grew up chubby."

"I had a reporter ask me how much I weigh. I said to him, 'You go first: How much do you weigh?' People always ask me what I eat. Other artists don't get asked these questions."

 
"I'm definitely bigger [body-wise] than a Rihanna. Pop stars nowadays are all perfect Barbie-doll bodies, and they talk about how they keep their bodies up with hard work, so in my eyes, it's good to have a regular, average body type in the charts."

"I don't consider myself a feminist, but I'm down for my first opportunity to say something to the world to be so meaningful. If you asked me, 'What do you want to say?' it would be, 'Love yourself more.'"
 
"I just think women should love themselves more than they do. Because I think - with all the social media stuff - we look at ourselves too much, and we just destroy ourselves when we're way cooler than we know."

"With social media, with Instagram and selfies and all these apps that are trying to make you look perfect... it's hard for girls to grow up nowadays with all that stuff."

"We should all have a big banner, or maybe a neon sign, in our bedrooms: Every inch of you is perfect."

 

All About That Bass - Meghan Trainor

No Excuses - Meghan Trainor

Made You Look - Meghan Trainor

And one last parting shot...

 

 ”Owning your curves means being confident - actually being confident - in your own skin. Growing up was tricky for me, it was so hard to shop with all of my friends and not being able to fit into the tiny clothes they were wearing."

"It’s a mental thing. Just recently I was thinking, ‘I’m confident now, and I look good,’ and that’s because I’ve started saying those words out loud more."

"Any body type is beautiful. It's all about loving what you got and rocking it."