Alicia Keys is encouraging people to stick to their creativity and embrace the feminine and masculine energies they hold—including her son.
On Instagram, the singer shared a story of how her four-year-old son, Genesis, shied away from getting a rainbow manicure, fearing that “people are not gonna like it.” But instead of allowing her son to be ashamed, she offered him tons of support and then took her thoughts to social media.
In an Instagram video that she captioned, “Less Labels, More Expressions,” Keys explained that Genesis was excited about getting his nails done when she brought him to the salon. “So he tells the lady that he wants rainbow colors on his nails. And she brings all of these colors and she paints each nail a different color. And after she painted his nails, he looked at me and he said, ‘Mommy, I don’t want this on my nails,'” Keys said in the video. “And I was like, ‘Why? You were so sure. You were good.’ And he was like, ‘People are not gonna like it.’ Can you believe this? Four years old. He’s four!”
But his mom continued to encourage him: “Stick with it. You chose it. You liked it. You do it.” She added, telling all of her Instagram followers, “The way I see it, there is masculine and there are feminine energies inside of us all, period. It gets concerning to me that we can’t just explore these different sides of ourselves. These different energies that are within us.”
Keys isn’t the only person who has been encouraging expression through nail art. Male celebrities, among them Harry Styles, Bad Bunny, A$AP Rocky, and Shawn Mendes have been trying to show that nail polish doesn’t have to be a gendered aesthetic choice and that men can paint their nails whatever color they want. And now, thanks to his mom, Genesis is proudly joining the club.
