Good things take time.

Throughout my teenage years or whatever, I've been so uncomfortable, or I've made mistakes and I've felt like I'm the only one who has done that.

People do things on Instagram and put on a front and try to live a life that they may not really want to live, or don't truly believe in. And that's the life that they portray. That's not the real them. We all have to be more aware of what is that's really happening inside. Are we really standing for what we believe in?

I've always been kind of a loner.

I'm a sneaker girl, but I like to make comfort fancy.

I've learned a lot about myself through my music and the way people perceive it, and the goal is for the success not to change me.

I think people often tend to listen to music with their eyes and not their ears, and I just wanted my work to shine, and to be able to convey my message without imagery taking away from that.

As a young woman, I experienced high school and heartbreak, and the music I started to write was a little bit more poetic, and more inspired by spoken word. The real raw emotional things that sit in the back of our minds, that you were afraid to say? That's how I started to write my music. And that's how 'H.E.R. Volume One' came about.

As a black woman, I've always had to work hard to earn my respect as a musician - and as a young woman, too. As a writer, in certain sessions or certain rooms people think, 'Who's kid is this? Who's this little girl?' I've had to prove myself.

I've been writing since I was five years old. I used to write poetry, and I loved to rhyme.

People have always tried to imitate, but at the end of the day, no one can do me better than I can do me, you know?

I wanted people to just accept the music for what it is without any judgement and being anonymous was the best way to do that.

I'm always thinking about Prince when I make my music and how genre-less he was and just how versatile and amazing he was on the stage. I'm so inspired by him.

It's not a popularity contest to me. It should always be about the music.

It's a great thing to hear people putting me up to this standard and putting me on this pedestal and expecting greatness from me, but at the end of the day, I'm just trying to be a better me as an artist musically.

Whether you know who I am or not, you don't really know who I am.

I really just wanted it to be about the music, and get away from, 'Who is she with?' and 'What is she wearing?'

I just love music, and that's what I want people to see and respect.

I want women to really feel how honest and vulnerable I am and to understand that they are not alone and that these are all human emotions.

Sometimes it's all about hype, and I didn't want hype.

We live in an era of social media. We care more about looks, popularity and followers than about real music. And I wanted to get away from that.

I never really thought of myself as someone who was gifted.

I always feel like we focus too much on image and the flashiness of what it means to be an artist.

To live your truth and sing your truth, that defines success.