Can you imagine the entertainment world without Lady Gaga? I can’t! She’s a performer, philanthropist and icon – which is why she is Glamour’s December cover girl and their 2013 Woman of the Year! The pop star looks absolutely gorgeous (and more au natural than usual) for the magazine and got candid for their exclusive interview. Check out a few of my favorite highlights below xo
Lady Gaga is Glamour’s Woman of the Year
On confidence: I’m really confident about my music because I love it. I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.
On her day-to-day costumes: So in some ways, the outfits—these creations are because I don’t want to face the reality of what people want from a female pop star. Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what’s underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don’t think it ever will be.
On what to call her: I’m both all the time. Gaga and Stefani are my nicknames. I guess when people meet me for the first time and call me Stefani, it bothers me. Because it’s something that’s reserved for only the people who are closest to me. It’s not because I don’t like my given name; it’s that I became somebody else. I became somebody else for a reason, you know. This is part of what my message is—you can become whoever you want to be, to escape your past.
On her Born This Way Foundation: The foundation is everything that I’ve ever believed in. My ambition was never to rule the world. It was always to change the world. And once I started to become more and more successful, this voice in the back of my mind was telling me to make sure that I staked my claim as a person. The Born This Way Foundation isn’t about money at all. It’s about communities, people coming together. It’s about kids telling their stories to one another, and finding a sense of home by breeding compassion, making it cool to be that kind of person. I truly believe that people can find a happier way, if they are aware of the stories of people around them—people who share similar challenges and similar fears.
