Alicia Keys’ #NoMakeup Movement Is Empowering Women Everywhere

Alicia Keys, a 15-time Grammy award winner, is proving to Hollywood—and the world—that she is more than just a pretty woman with killer vocals.

The “Girl on Fire” singer recently shared an essay on Lenny where she recalls the struggles she’s felt as a woman to always look perfect and maintain her image. Keys writes about her “insecure, superficial, but honest thoughts” throughout her career that revolved around constantly looking good and caring what other people thought as she grew into her stardom.

The 35-year-old mother explains that she was asked by photographer Paola Kudacki to wear no makeup for a shoot. The hesitancy Keys felt initially turned into “the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt.”

After that initial photoshoot, Keys went on to announce in the essay that she will now permanently remain makeup-free.

Explaining her case for #nomakeup, she says, “I don’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.”

Keys, a singer/songwriter/producer and New York Times best-selling author, seems to have more confidence than ever while sporting her bare face.

Encouraging women to be themselves in the skin they’re in? This is a movement we can get behind.