,type=downsize)
Jennifer Lopez can add “Pop Culture Innovator” to her tome of accomplishments. The 51-year-old superstar gave an incredible acceptance speech after being bestowed the title by WSJ. Magazine this week. “I am humbled and honored to be named @wsjmag’s 2020 Pop Culture Innovator!” she wrote in a lengthy caption that accompanied her acceptance video. “For me, being innovative is where you can break outside of the box of what is expected.” JLo certainly fits the bill. She candidly spoke about her journey, revealing what experience shapes everything she does to this day and more.
Keep reading to see her empowering message to fans!
“I love movies, and the pretend, and the make believe, and the fantasy of what the world could be,” she began in the glossily edited video. “And until the world is 100 percent perfect and completely fixed I will never be done.”
“My name is Jennifer Lopez,” she continued, then rattling off the numerous hats she wears - performer, producer, etc. “It’s hard to just kind of put it in one word. From very young I never wanted to be put in a box. I wanted to be smart and athletic and sweet and tough and a Tom boy but also very glam. That’s why I became an actress and performer because you get to be a lot of different things.”
Jen touched on breaking into the business, saying: “When I first came on the scene, I wasn‘t trying to be the size zero model or say I wasn’t Latin and change my name. I was Jennifer Lopez. I had a big butt, I embraced that, but I didn’t just wanna be the Latin actress or the one who played those roles. I wanted to do different roles.”
“There’s different acts in our lives and every day I’m trying to be a better version of myself,” she continued. “It’s really been a life’s journey of trying to figure myself out and where I fall short and where I could be better and where patterns from my childhood have held me back in different areas of my life.” The “Jenny from the Block singer” then opened up about her childhood like never before.
© GettyImages“Growing up in the Bronx really did shape me, because I grew up with not a lot,” she said. “Everything about me; my kind of grit. I never thought about it or described it this way before but it is the heartbeat inside of me that is the Bronx and my upbringing that continues to drive me.”
The mom-of-two then shared what she wants fans to take away from everything she does. “What I strive to share with my work and with my audience is that you‘re limitless. It’s taken me a while to get to the point where I even realize that for myself, but now that I do, I really feel and operate with that sensibility all the time. There’s nothing I could not accomplish if I wanted to.”
“I believe every single person holds that power,” she added. “It‘s taken me a while to get to the point where I even realize it’s not always about talent, it’s not always about education, it’s about persistence and hard work. And if you are dedicated to that, whatever dream, however big it is, you can accomplish it.”
As for what’s next? “When you’re a creator there is no last chapter. You just keep going. I’m so happy with everything that’s happened in the past 10 years, but the next ten years - Oh my God just wait and see! I don’t even know what’s going to happen.” We’ll be cheering you on, JLo!
