Lizzo guides teens on how to find safe spaces on social media and protect  their mental health

Lizzo gave valuable advice to a group of young people on how to “find safe spaces on social media” and strategies to protect their mental health.

While serving as a brand ambassador for Dove’s Self-Esteem Project, the 34-year-old superstar revealed how she doesn’t get carried away by negative comments online.

“Every time I see something online that hurts me, I remember that the online world is not the real world,” she told students in the audience. “I manage social media. Social media doesn’t control me.’

The four-time Grammy winner then led the audience by making positive statements including, “I love you, you’re beautiful and you can do anything.”

After the crowd enthusiastically repeated her powerful words, she showed them how to practice circular breathing.

Next, the Truth Hurts hitmaker reflected on how many people “spend so much time being nice to” “family and friends” and working hard at school.

“Now you have to be kind to yourself,” she insisted. ‘I really have hope for a better future.’

Under the video, which was uploaded to her Instagram account on Wednesday, Lizzo joked that she was entering her “self-love guru era.”

Today I proudly wore my #pigeon partner hat. Thank you to The @dove Self-Esteem,” she gushed in the caption as hundreds of her 13.4 million followers sang her praises in the comments section.

For the speaking engagement, she rocked a form-fitting, long-sleeved gray with silver hoop earrings.

From the beginning of her career, the artist has preached that women should love and accept their bodies.

In 2021, she discussed receiving “racist” and “fat-shaming” messages on social media while speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.

“I feel like fat is the worst thing people can say about me right now,” said Lizzo. This is the greatest uncertainty. It’s like, “How dare a pop star be fat?” I had to own that.’

She went on to explain how she feels her journey to the top of the charts has differed from that of other artists.

“I feel like other people who are put on that pedestal, or who become pop stars, probably have other insecurities or other flaws,” she said, “but they can hide it behind a veneer of being sexy and being marketable.”

‘There are still so many people who suffer from systematic marginalisation. Meanwhile, there’s a big black girl at the Grammys.”

Lizzo said society “has a long way to go” amid the differences based on race and appearance, as “the infrastructure hasn’t changed that much.”

“Plus size black women are still not getting the treatment they deserve in hospitals, from doctors and at work,” she said.

That same year, she also said she was thankful photo editing apps didn’t exist when she was a teenager, while discussing the “dangerous” effects of social media.

“The scary thing is when I was their age, the girls who are 12/13 now, I felt the same way. I remember waking up and wanting to change a part of myself, but I didn’t have any photo retouching,” she reflected during an interview with makeup artist Dre Brown.

She eventually admitted that she quit Twitter in 2019 after feeling “super stressed” by incessant trolling on the platform.

“You look up and there’s a totally unrealistic standard for your body and your face that you’ve created. I think there’s something very dangerous about that,’ Lizzo said.

As for what helped her accept her curves, she confessed she had “no choice” and “it was literally surviving.”

“I was like if I keep living in this body and by being happy and surviving in this body I have to try to find a way to love myself. I was body negative for a long time,” she admitted.