Lizzo is the body-positive feminist rapper the world needs

"It’s a continuing journey," she said. "Even today, there are moments where it’s not 100 percent, where my confidence isn’t where I want it to be. I’m constantly working on it. I feel like when I get into my 30's and 40's and 50's, I'll be in different stages, different ages of self-love. But right now, my 20's are all about that exploration."

The rapper, who started actively working on her self-image at age 21, admitted she can "talk bigger and look more confident than I feel sometimes." When her self-esteem starts slipping, though, she has an armory of go-to, restorative fixes. Her most trusted technique? Snapchat filters.

"I’m on Snapchat and will just do a cute little selfie real quick with some dog ears, and I feel better about myself," she said with the same laugh that often finds its way onto her tracks. Girl isn't lying, either — she really does love her Snapchat filters.

Outside of the miracles of Snapchat, she relies on quick and simple things you can do to nurture your body.

"Moisturizing with coconut oil and showering, too — things that you can do immediately to your body that make you feel good," she recommended. "Like, there’s tons of negative ions in running water, so when you’re in the shower, the ocean, or a river, you can feel immediately better because of all the electrical charge in the current. Also, I do love eat and I love to be naked, so sometimes I’ll eat while I’m naked. (It's) the small things. I like smelling good, too."

Friendship has consistently been a source of both personal and professional strength for the Minneapolis-based rapper. She was a member of the all-girl R&B troupe, the Chalice, in 2011, and then helped found another all-female hip-hop collective, GRRRL PRTY, in 2013. Though the collective dissolved this June, Lizzo avows they all remain close; Sophia Eris, her former GRRRL PRTY collaborator and best friend, even joined her on the road to open for Sleater Kinney's reunion tour. Meaningful, women-centered collaborations like these pepper Lizzo's discography, and they'll continue to do so, at least until she's partnered with her dream collaborator — Missy Elliot.

"I’ll just keep pushing that out into the universe until it happens," she said with a laugh.

And even though she and her former collective members are now all pursuing solo careers, they remain a source of support and inspiration to each other, she said. 

"My friends have taught me a lot, and they’ve worked so hard to get me where I want to go. We’re all about making each other’s dreams come true, so it’s a beautiful thing when that can happen," she said. "I think that the most important thing about women who support each other is knowing when to allow them to take care of themselves and to make music for themselves and to feel fulfilled on their own, so that way in a group they can feel fulfilled just as equally."

Despite the clear association between Lizzo's lyrics and feminism, she hasn't always been comfortable with accepting labels as a public figure — especially one that has attracted criticism for excluding Black women. 

"I think other people identify me as (a feminist). I’m doing things that feminists do and I believe things that feminists believe," she explained. "But it’s hard to label yourself and then become public, because the public is going to label you anyway. I think that coming out that way is less organic, and I always work to stand my ground and be who I am regardless."

But around the time of Beyoncé's 2014 VMA's feminist declaration, she started reading the works of iconic feminist figures, like Sojourner Truth (who gets a nod on one of her tracks, "Ain't I"), and had a change of heart.

"(Beyoncé) made it easier for people to relate to someone who identifies as feminist. I now receive that title, but I also never just call myself a feminist," she clarified. "I refer to myself as a humanist and a feminist, because I’m not just one thing."