Melanie Martinez Is Pretty Dang Awesome

My taste in music is so various it's kind of crazy. One day I'll listen to Frank Sinatra and Country music, and the next day I'll get my jam on and listen to Halsey and Melanie Martinez. We listen to music that connects with us and has a specific message that sticks in our minds for a multitude of reasons.

Case in point, this morning I was listening to Melanie Martinez, an incredibly talented singer and songwriter who first appeared on The Voice. She's edgy and her own person, which I absolutely love, and you can definitely tell from her music. But she also writes and sings songs that can be interpreted different ways by different people. Which leads me to one of my favorite songs of hers, Mrs. Potato Head.

Mrs. Potato Head deals with body image and how girls of any age worry about their looks. I think everyone deals with body image issues. Boys may feel the need to get big and have huge muscles, have an eight pack and melon sized biceps. That's not realistic. Girls may want to have a tiny waist with perfect hair and flawless skin. This may sound cheesy and cliché, but everyone is beautiful.

Mrs. Potato Head focuses on girls body image issues more than boys, and I think that is solely because Melanie Martinez is a girl. In the song, Melanie is talking to little girls and then she's talking to Mr. Potato Head. Asking him if he'll still love his wife after she's aged and may not be considered as beautiful as she was.

Here's some pretty awesome lyric clips from the song that stick out to me.
"
"Don't be dramatic, it's only some plastic. No one will love you if you're unattractive." This stuck out to me because it digs into the normalization of plastic surgery to cover up what we don't like about ourselves. I'm not saying that people who have plastic surgery procedures are unconfident, but I wonder if they had waited a little bit longer to have their operation, maybe they would've been able to find a way to be comfortable in their own skin.

"But little girls are learning how to cut and paste. And pucker up their lips until they suffocate." This again ties into how we are perceived on social media. So many kids are getting social media and with each year, the minimum age seems to drop. If social media is something they want to have, go at it. But I think we need to teach kids that beauty isn't an Instagram filter.

If you like alt-pop and liked Mrs. Potato Head, I definitely recommend Melanie's debut album, Cry Baby. The music beautifully written and sung, and we can jam out together if you like it as much as I do. I'm always down for a dance party.

For anyone who may possibly be reading this, you're beautiful. Beauty is not pain, beauty is confidence. Beauty is the way you smile when no one is watching, beauty is all of the things you do in a day to improve your life and the life of others. Love yourself and love everyone around you to the highest of your capabilities.