Megan Thee Stallion Got Real About the Pressure To Be Confident

Megan Thee Stallion just opened up about the pressure to constantly be confident.

While serving as the cover star for Rolling Stone's newest issue, the rapper touched on how her mental health was negatively impacted by a 2020 shooting at the hands of alleged perpetrator, Tory Lanez — and why she felt like she couldn't talk about it.

Following the initial July 2020 incident, which left the rapper hospitalized with bullet fragments in both of her feet, Megan said that while she was ridiculed online for sharing information about the shooting, Lanez was often praised.

"In some kind of way I became the villain," she said. "And I don't know if people don't take it seriously because I seem strong. I wonder if it's because of the way I look. Is it because I'm not light enough? Is it that I'm not white enough? Am I not the shape? The height? Because I'm not petite? Do I not seem like I'm worth being treated like a woman?"

The rapper added that although she was hurting, she feared that expressing her emotions would give negative commenters even more power.

"I'm trying every day to get through it and be good. I feel so bad because I don't feel like anybody's taking me seriously, but I don't want them to see me cry," she said. "I don't want them to know that I feel like this, because I don't want them to feel like, 'Oh, I got you. I'm breaking you.'"

Megan pointed out that this isn't an uncommon internal conflict for Black women to experience, and shared that while it's a "gift that [she's] so strong," it's "also a curse."

"It makes things get kind of lonely sometimes," Megan said. "Everybody's kind of like, 'Well, you good. You got it. I ain't messing with you.' So I feel like it makes people treat me not as delicate as I would like them to."

As the Grammy Award winner continues to work on honoring her mental health, she said she's happy to serve as motivation for those in similar positions. "Look at everything I can accomplish and everything I can do in the face of it. I'm still not letting nothing knock me down to take me off my game. So you shouldn't let nothing take you off your game, either," she said. "Because if I can get through this shit, you could get through your shit."