Teyana Taylor's career has traversed many eras—but the singer-songwriter, dancer, actress, beauty icon, and self-described "lover girl" has never strayed from two key principles: an unshakable belief in herself, and the willingness to learn from talented mentors.
As she tells Marie Claire on the Nice Talk podcast with Nikki Ogunnaike—an interview also featured on the cover of Marie Claire's Changemakers issue—these two principles memorably met in the form of life advice from Beyoncé.
Beyoncé is "the one who would help me understand, you’re going to have to invest in yourself to get what you want," Taylor tells Ogunnaike. "I remember just being in a space where I was trying to figure it out, and she was just encouraging me to keep going."
The multi-hyphenate continues, "Never be afraid to invest in yourself. You’re never going to fully get what you want unless you go and do it yourself. That always stuck with me."
Beyoncé has been there for Taylor in a big way throughout her career: she trusted the then-up-and-comer to choreograph on "Ring the Alarm" when Taylor was just 15 years old, as reported by People. (She's now 34.)
"No matter where I’ve ever been, whatever challenges I was going through, wherever I’ve been in my career, feeling stagnant or feeling unseen or unheard, to just hear Beyoncé tell me how proud of me she is, no matter where I am in my life and my career, really inspires me to keep going and just keep following my heart and following my gut," Taylor says.
"See, it may be a little bit different now, because the young'uns coming up are stuck in their own ways," she observes. "Our generation was really willing to be students. I looked at the Beyoncés, the Kanyes, the Pharrells, and I just wanted to soak up knowledge. I was always ready to learn. Even to this day, I’m always willing to be a student, no matter how much I pour into others. I may be a teacher to others, but I’m always still a student. No one is ever above learning."
