Lizzo, who has weathered several waves of public backlash, wrote in a Substack essay that being “canceled” can be an instructive, even necessary, experience. Published on Monday, December 1, she argued that facing that kind of scrutiny teaches resilience and perspective.

She opened her piece by describing the moral framework of her youth: raised in a Pentecostal COGIC church in Detroit, Lizzo said she grew up with a vivid sense of sin and punishment—a worldview that made public condemnation feel especially stark.

One early flashpoint, she recalled, was a 2019 incident at a Lakers game where an outfit that suggested exposed buttocks sparked outrage. The fallout included false claims that she had run onto the court, a barrage of memes and even death threats—an episode Lizzo cites as the first in a series of cancellations that tested her.

Her takeaway: the online ecosystem often privileges sensationalism over nuance. “The internet doesn’t care about what really happened to someone. It only cares about believing the hype,” she wrote, noting how quickly narratives can take on a life of their own regardless of the facts.

Lizzo cataloged numerous reasons she’s been targeted over the years—from following a smoothie cleanse to expressing emotion publicly, from saying she makes music for Black women to unintentionally including a derogatory slur in a song. Her response to the relentless scrutiny was blunt: “F—k it,” she admitted, framing acceptance as a path forward.

She also reflected on a broader cultural shift: heightened sensitivity amplified by personalized algorithms means that content that doesn’t align with an individual’s viewpoint can feel like a personal attack. That dynamic, she argues, has left people afraid to err and at risk of being judged harshly and quickly.

The Substack essay is her second post on the platform; her first examined weight loss from the vantage point of someone whose body and health have been publicly dissected. Lizzo has spoken candidly about the toll fame and public criticism have taken on her mental health, but she says she’s in a stronger place creatively and personally after releasing the mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling.

Speaking to Billboard in June, she described a renewed confidence: greater trust in her own vision and creativity after weathering industry pressures and losing faith in outside “experts.” That regained self-assurance, she said, has helped her embrace who she is without hiding parts of herself.

Read Lizzo’s full Substack essay

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