By Sewe Ishola

Musician, Alicia Keys in all of her make-up free glory is the cover girl for Glamour magazine’s March 2017 activism edition.

The mother of two shared with the magazine interesting bits of her life, ranging from her make-up free life to her parenting journey.

Below are snippets from her chat with the magazine.

On not wearing makeup for nearly a year: “I guess I’ve come to terms that life is going to be a constant peeling back of layers, a constant unlearning of what we’ve been taught or believe to be true. I think that I’ve come to terms with the fact that that’s just going to happen for the whole duration of my life. I feel really good about being able to look myself in the face and say, ‘Oh, who are you now?’ And that might change.”

On what she wishes she could tell her younger self: “There is this fallacy about how women are catty, that we’re all in competition with each other. I’d say: As opposed to getting swept up in jealousy, use that pang to give you an indication of what you are looking for. Actually, there is this awesome performer Lilly Singh [IISuperwomanII on YouTube], who always does this thing: ‘Shout out another girl and tell her what you love about her.’ Even doing that is such a good practice. I don’t know if we tell women great news about themselves enough. You’d be surprised how often a young woman doesn’t hear positive things about herself—not in her home, not at school. It’s hard to create a beautiful image for yourself when you’ve never seen it or heard it.”

On what it means to be a mom: “I love being a mom. And I think what I love the most is the way it makes me think about what’s important and what’s not important. What to fight for and what to just be cool with. What it is that I’m teaching through example and what it is that I was taught that I don’t want to teach. You can be very fulfilled as a mother, but that can’t be the only way you are fulfilled. What about being a woman? What about being yourself? Your awareness of what’s happening in the world? It lives altogether in a way that makes a whole. I guess I’d say I’m the wholest I’ve ever been.”