Alicia Keys shared some inspirational, non-judgmental parenting advice via Instagram on Sunday after she took her 4-year-old son, Genesis Ali, to get a manicure and he regretted his rainbow-colored nails he was previously excited for.
“I was like, ‘Why? You were so sure, you’re good,'” she told her son at the time. “And he was like, ‘People are not going to like it.'”
The “Girl on Fire” singer felt heated by her son’s early perception of judgment, especially toward young men expressing a perceived feminine quality.
On her IGTV post, Keys talked about advising her son to unapologetically embody his creativity through a form of expression men have been using for a long time.
“‘It’s so cool. Look how creative you are, look how amazing you are. You had this idea — stick with it. You chose it, you liked it, you do it,”” she advised her son. “I said, ‘Plus, you know a lot of guys paint their nails. This is not like some strange thing that you only do.’ And he was like, ‘Really?’ … And that made him feel better.”
Following her recap of her conversation with Ali, she opened up to the larger discussion about imposing judgment on each other and the balance between the “masculine and… feminine energies inside of us all.” Keys talked about feeling very natural about oftentimes embracing her masculine side but feels frustrated that her sons, including her 9-year-old son Egypt Daoud with husband Swizz Beatz, don’t feel the same way because of all the labels and stereotypes slapped onto these expressions.
Watch Keys’ entire IGTV video below.
