I want to make a difference and inspire, says Normani

Normani hopes to “inspire” people through her music and her sense of style.

The 26-year-old star – who shot to fame as a teenager as part of Fifth Harmony – wants to be remembered as someone who “didn’t play by the rules”.

Asked how she sees herself, Normani replied: “That I really did my best to make a difference and really inspire. I feel like anytime that I talk about music, I always come back to representation. The passing of the baton, of passing of the torch.

“I just pray that I do enough in order to make enough strides for the next generation to be able to start where I finish, and make the experience a bit easier, the way that those before me have for me. Not to say that I haven’t been doing anything, because it’s going to be a challenge of some sort, but I hope that I can make it a little bit easier.”

The ‘Motivation’ hitmaker believes black women have been underrepresented in the entertainment industry for far too long.

She told Girls United: “Representation has always been important to me and growing up, I didn’t always feel like I had that, to be able to look at the TV and see myself.

“This is why the artists that I look up to mean so much to me and carry so much weight, but especially in the beauty space, I would say that it was sparse.”

Normani also conceded that she’s gone through a personal evolution since she embarked on her solo career.

The singer explained: “Me at 15 is fairly different than me at 26, and granted that comes with time and just evolution and experience.”