Meghan Trainor covers the March issue of Seventeen. She doesn’t have a full LP out yet. so she’s promoting the tuneage that keeps making me dive and turn off the radio. The “Lips Are Movin'” song — it’s a bit monotonous.
Megan looks beautiful in the Seventeen shoot. The cover’s a little wonky, but the editorial is much better. In the interview, Meghan talks about how she coped with her overnight success. The Meghan Trainor legend isn’t complicated. She wrote “All About that Bass” for Beyonce, who wasn’t into it (Bey told Anna Mae to eat her cake instead). Meghan recorded the song herself, and the tune went six times platinum. That’ll make a double Grammy loss disappear into a vapor trail.
This interview isn’t terrible by Meghan standards. I still think she’s privileged and clueless, but she’s doing better:
On gaining body confidence: “When I saw photos of myself, I would think, I look awful. There’s a double chin! I never thought I’d be a pop star. I don’t look like Rihanna. [Then] after the video for ‘All About That Bass’ came out … when I was signing autographs, this girl came up to me bawling and said, ‘You make me feel pretty again. Thank you.’ It really resonated with me that this girl was so gorgeous, and she didn’t even know it. 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. So now when I see pictures, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, why would I hate myself at all? I look incredible in that picture!'”
On waiting for the right guy:: “I knew my life would be complicated if my dreams of becoming a success in music came true. And I knew I’d have to work hard to achieve those dreams, and that they’d have to take a front seat in my life. I haven’t kissed a boy in forever. I keep telling myself that the right guy is going to be worth the wait.'”
Her life lesson: “I guess the biggest thing that I’ve learned is, never doubt your dreams. No matter how big your dream is or how ridiculous you think it is, you can’t doubt it–you have to believe in it. Because it will happen.”
[From Seventeen]
Meghan laments the fact that she doesn’t look like Rihanna, but who does? I get it. Rihanna is naturally sultry, and no one else can hope to compete. Rihanna can even show up in a cupcake-frothy dress and people faint dead away.
I do wonder how much of this body-image discussion is Meghan’s PR talking. Her whole image is built around “I ain’t no size 2,” and that’s what she talks about to the press. Does Meghan secretly hate talking about body image, or is she still into talking up one body type over another?
Photos courtesy of Dewey Nicks/Seventeen & WENN
She’s far from big, in fact she looks just a few pounds heavier than someone like Katy Perry. She just has that Kelly Osbourne thing of her face looking like it belongs on a much larger person. Otherwise she really doesn’t have much ‘bass’ to speak of.
I agree, she’s got the face of a someone who used to be large. Which she probably was before lipo.
True– in that pic in the brown top (which I happen to think is very pretty) she really doesn’t look more than, say, a 10? The cover, even smaller. For comparison’s sake, Katie Perry fluctuates to about an 8 sometimes and still looks great.
She just has one of those misleading faces.
she has lost weight since her debut song. I wonder if that’s just from the long hours, work and stress or she tried to lose it.
Right. I was thinking she’s not that big.
Lipo can only do so much, it can’t shave off 40lbs. I had lipo on my hips, yes it helped but I didn’t lose really any weight.
Her mouth is wide open in every pic. Not even in a sultry way.
My friend has a round face like her and did the same open mouth picture that she does. She said she did it because she thought it lengthens her face. I don’t know about that, but maybe Meghan is doing it too?
Pictures are selected here for a reason. I’m sure there are lots of pictures with her mouth closed. It’s not like the only photos of her are posted here and with her mouth open.
I do hate how mag covers more often than not have the women pose with the mouth open. Rarely is it closed.
I’ve said it and I’ve said it and I’ve said it. Photographers ask them to open their mouths because it looks more “active”. Also, yes, for a round face it can give the impression of a longer jawline. But mostly it’s the “active” thing. I’ve never met a photographer who didn’t ask for open-mouth poses, and I’ve rarely seen a layout editor pass over the open-mouth shots. For some reason, everyone in print media is obsessed with open mouths.
They can refuse. And you can look active without having your mouth opened as wide as it is in the dentist chair.
And if you don’t like saying and saying it you don’t have to 🙂
They can refuse…and then the photographer keeps yelling at them. And then the editor gets involved. And most people who get photographed for magazines are either models who are trained/expected to do as told without argument (which is what was so brilliant about Zoolander, a model really will do whatever they’re told during a photoshoot), or are actors/celebrities who have learned to just go along with it, or they also think they look best in an active pose. Even if they want to refuse, it’s not as simple as just saying no. The environment doesn’t work that way. And, there probably are hundreds of shots with the model/celebrity’s mouth closed, and the layout editor will still most likely go for the open-mouth shot. It’s an industry standard; they all prefer it.
I haven’t warmed to her yet. There’s just something about her I don’t like and I too change the station or channel as soon as I see/hear her music start.
Same here!
Her Stupid interviews, the disingenuous nonsense she goes on and on about Feminism and “being big” ??
The Schitck-y songs?
(Im giving you choices)
But also to her point: yeah cause white Blonde cis gendered girls making poppy stuff and saying NOOO Im no feminist cause i don’t hate men and I want their validation is really such a hard sell to the American Pop Landscape
Yeah, I can’t deal with these “I’m not a feminist because I love men” twits! Also the whole “love yourself” ….because men want to bone you. It’s like we’re competing before the Penis Council. Curvy women versus skinny women (because obviously there are only two types of women on this planet), fight to the death! The team making more dicks hard wins! But ya know, love yourself…
For me, it’s the look in her eyes. I see Faux News broadcaster.
I can’t stand both of her songs – and the endless cross promotions with her second single – and it’s exacerbated by my irrational hatred of her.
And no, she’s not big and I hate the faux body confidence BS marketing she shills.
She kinda looks like a young Courtney love.
Seems like this is her only topic. She just goes on and on about it. And comes across really narcisstic and superficial. Bitching about thin girls (like in her song) is not accepting oneself. She lost all credibility for me when I read that line in her lyrics.
In the song she says that even skinny girls think they’re fat. I don’t see anything problematic with that.
Yeeees! I wish people would stop pushing that narrative as an excuse to hate her or the song. To say she’s “talking up one size over the other” is unfair as she’s never said that big girls are better than skinny girls in any interview that I’ve read.
While it’s true even skinny girls think they’re fat, this song grates on me because of phrases like “boys like a little more booty”. SHE isn’t a size 2, but the way she talks about it, makes it sounds like well, I’m not skinny, but boys like bigger anyway. That’s also a terrible message for girls who might have zero butt and feel self conscious about it, or one of those girls/women that don’t have curves and feel like a child around busty women with hips. She “just playing” about the “skinny bitches” but I hate that it’s even brought up and dismissed as a joke. If this song was opposite, there would be blood.
I’ve been chubby, but also have the body type that when I’m thin, I’m straight up and down with no breasts, hips in line with my waist, and rather boyish. Both made me feel insecure which is the problem addressing loosely addressing, but feel she should have been more blanket “EVERY body is fabulous” without name dropping types, if she is that hard core about body acceptance.
yes. Can’t we all agree that what’s attractive to some people, may not be to others and vice versa? Some guys are “boob” guys. Some guys are “butt” guys and some guys like the non-curvey skinny build.
What I find odd about her schtick of being mean-girled is that in my highschool, the mean girls were NOT the better looking girls. The mean girls were the ones who came from families with money. It was about money – not looks. I got mean girled because I didn’t/couldn’t keep up with the Joneses. There were several of us girls who were better looking than the popular clique, but came from modest backgrounds. The popular girs were popular because their families could afford to have them in everything (cheer, dance, softball, skiing, you name it and they had all the cool outfits and gear to match not to mention sweet cars already at 16). They were ruthless and pretty much tortured those of us who had any brians and heaven forbid, if we were naturally pretty. Ironically, the main mean girl in my HS looked alot like Megan Trainor.
I like her.
And I like what’s she saying. When I was a teen, people who looked like her, or Lena Dunham or Mindy Kailing weren’t in screens, and if they were, they were usually the joke. And that wasn’t so long ago.
The 2000s were the years during which being scary skinny was in, look at the it girls from that time LiLo, Paris, Nicole, Mischa Barton etc . It really messed up my body perception as a teenager.
way before that, in the 90’s we had kate moss and her famous heroine chic look, thanks Calvin Klein…
She doesn’t bother me, but her song does.
As for not looking like Rhianna, that’s a plus to me.
Me, too. I don’t get the “Rihanna is so beautiful” thing. She looks vacant.
YIKES. Your comments. Geez.
+1
Thinking the same thing ….
She looks fine to me. Get some self respect, self love and self confidence girl, that’s all you need. And enjoy the success however long it lasts, seriously!!
God, her last words made me laugh so hard.
I’m sure they are the daily mantra of all wannabes in every reality/talent searching show.
Hey Bedhead, she actually does. It opened at #1 last month with almost 200,000 albums sold in its first week, meaning Meghan Trainor’s officially not a Carly Rae Jepsen. Here’s the Billboard link: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6443849/meghan-trainor-title-debut-number-one
Even though she’s not a one hit wonder, I do think she’ll have to show she’s got more of a point of view than “love your body” in order to last. She’s definitely got potential as a pop singer/songwriter though.
I’m just laughing at how many of these comments are basically she’s not ‘fat’ enough’ to complain. So much snark amongst us women. Every woman no matter how ‘hot’ she appears to be has moments of body hate. Even Rihanna, which is the only way to explain that cupcake she wore to the Grammy’s… she usually has scraps of clothing on LOL
Pretty much this. Women can’t win as far as weight goes. If we’re perceived to be too thin, we’re told to eat a burger. If we’re too heavy, we’re disgusting and no man will ever want us. Now we apparently can’t be of average weight, either.
She’s not a supermodel but she could look a hell of a lot better if she’d use age appropriate makeup techniques. She sort of looks like a real housewife with it caked on all the time.
I notice whoever styles her also dresses her a little older too. I often forget she is barely in her 20’s.
She isn’t unattractive or heavy, but her voice bugs. I’ve seen 2 different interviews with her and every other word that comes out of her nouth is “epic.” It made me want to strangle her.
Don’t like her.
She’s a good looking woman but why is almost every single photo of her mouth open/surprise face? I’m feeling buggy this morning and this just made me twitch a lil bit more.
You would think she has a hump on her back and is running late for the ringing of the bell tower, FFS. Whatever! I’m sure she is asked about body image because of her lyrics, but give it a rest. You are not afflicted, okay chica? You are a pop tart.
She’s pretty young and came into the industry not the image they usually want. She is asked the same questions about body image by every interviewer because that’s what her song is about and that’s what made her famous (even if only for a little while.) I don’t think she comes into studios for interviews prepared with new body image language. She is smaller than when she first came on the scene. I chalk it up to lots of performing, practice and rehearsal. She does vascillate between being happy with herself the way she is and bemoaning about not being the traditional American beauty and I see that as a natural phasing out of one mentality and growing into a healther new menatality. It doesn’t happen over night and she was obviously mean-girled and it shaped her view of herself. Alot of women never get over it, so I’m glad she’s summoning some healthier views and trying to retrain herself to think differently. I don’t bag on her. She’s cute. Her song was catchy – it’s old now. Her new song sounds like the first song, but that’s how pop goes. I doubt she’ll last long, but she is harmless and sweet, so why should she not enjoy her success while she has it? Hope she puts some money away. I sense she’s a flash in the pan.
That’s funny, I thought she’d never be a pop star with the way she sings.
who is this person???? she looks annoying
I have seen pics of her with less make-up and I really believe she should go the “less is more” route. Who does her make-up? Why so much? She doesn’t need it. If a Caucasian, blonde, slightly curvy girl in America doesn’t think she can be a pop singer, than who can?
Well, I think “stick figure” is pretty bitchy. Not empowering.
For some reason she’s very antipathetic to me.
She looks like Meryl Streep in the face.
Is it just me or does anyone else find encouraging overweight people to stay overweight irresponsible?
I get the whole “love yourself” message, but really loving yourself would be working on your health.
And I just looooove how it’s cool to basically trash talk skinny people. Yes being underweight and not eating well is not to be encouraged, but really? It just smacks of jealousy.
Its like shes target marketed directly at militant tumblr feminists. Who hate everything they can’t have.
Beh I’m ugly and boys don’t like me because I’m a shitty person. Instead of working on that, I’ll make attractive women and men the villain so I can feel better about myself.
This sort of thinking needs to stop.
agree!
and yet, I feel like she has lost quite a bit of weight in recent months…
I think if she had better stage presence and lost the dead look in her eyes she could become the full pop package she seems to want to be. But her voice alone is amazing – it would be cool to see her really selling music and not having to deal with a whole packaged image. But i guess that’s not really possible these days
Her body is average but I think her face is the issue- she looks like a man and her poor clothing choices n makeup make it worse
As soon as a celeb pulls the ‘I’m not a feminist because I like men’ line, they become white noise to me. Cannot take them seriously, just hope they’ll grow up and realise that of course they’re actually feminists, unless they don’t want women to vote and think men are superior.