SZA opened up about her traumatic experience in school and how it changed her as a person.

Solána Imani Rowe aka SZA has been candid about her battle with mental health struggles. The Grammy-winning music legend shared she mistakenly went to a life coach instead of a therapist for her anxiety once, which did not help. SZA’s life and her mental health traumas are often reflected in her discography that resonates with her large fanbase. It also helped earn her a number-one single on Billboard Hot 100 and a record for the largest streaming week for an R&B album in the US with SOS.

SZA’s cruel confrontation at school that changed her as a person

SZA’s mental health struggles started back in school where she was bullied for ‘being awkward.’ The I Hate U crooner shared in an interview: “I was bullied because I wasn’t quiet and I was awkward at the same time.

“I wasn’t this tiny sad victim, but I was more so attacked just because it was giving ‘What is wrong with you?’ energy.”

The traumatic experience made her doubt herself as she revealed having negative thoughts: “I always thought, ‘Oh my God.’ I’ll never have the approval of anyone in life, this must be my defining factor, this must be the bottom line,” the singer told People.

The scarring experience from her school life also became a defining factor later on as SZA confessed: “I realized that all the things that made me feel so lame were actually what made me into who I am.”

“It’s like, I didn’t go to prom because I didn’t have any friends and I had no one to go to prom with … [and now] it’s so weird that my life turned into [having] a bodyguard while traveling to parties,” she admits.

‘I regret being afraid or caring what people said about me’

The celebrity also faced increased Islamophobia after 9/11, and stopped wearing a hijab to school because of it. SZA’s mother is Christian and her father is Muslim, and she continues to follow Islam.

The Good Days hitmaker did a Q&A on TikTok and spoke about her experiences.

She admitted: “I regret so much—like, being afraid or caring what people said about me, or in high school feeling like if I didn’t cover all the time that I can’t start covering some of the time.

“And I did start covering again in high school, and then they were like, ‘What is this? You don’t live your life properly. You’re not really Muslim. Shut up.’ I always let somebody dictate how I was.”

SZA’s message for the bullying victims

SZA shares that even the worst experience of her life can be meaningful in some way or the other. She has a message for all the young girls who go through bullying.

The celebrity says: “Everyone who experiences bullying, that just sucks, but it’s going to lead you to something, it has to,” the “Low” singer says. “If you could hold on and just wait until high school is over because 10 years from now, I promise you, none of those people will matter.”

Related Topics

MORE CELEBRITY STORIES