Once again, Lizzo has proved that she knows how to watch out for the big grrls.
When writer Aurielle Marie (they/she) was facing a fashion tragedy—an invitation to a fancy gala and nothing to wear—they shared their plight on TikTok and reached for the stars.
In this case, a cold call to a specific star.
"I can't find anything that is big bitch and red carpet ready," they posted, asking Lizzo if they could borrow the red Giambattista Valli dress the singer wore to the Emmy’s in September. "I know you know how it feels to be the biggest bitch in the room and all the scrutiny that comes with that. The audacity that you've marked in your career has helped me step out and be audacious myself."
The gala was a very big deal for Marie.
The event in question was the Out Magazine gala in NYC, and Marie had been invited to celebrate their inclusion on the Out100 list as “one of the most important queer voices in the literary world." Marie, an Atlanta-based writer, poet, and essayist who writes about Blackness, queerness, fatphobia, and identity, was having a series of breakout moments. Their 2020 debut poetry collection, Gumbo Ya Ya, had been met with critical acclaim—“a cauldron of hearty poems exploring race, gender, desire, and violence in the lives of Black gxrls, soaring against the backdrop of a contemporary South.” The Out list nod signaled more breakthroughs to come.
But none of that was helping them find a dress that wasn’t dowdy, corny, ugly, or that fit their frame. “I was like, what do I want to look like? How do I want to feel? And I ended up on this photo of Lizzo. She wore this dress as she accepted her first Emmy,” Marie told NBC News.
Their cold call on TikTok in late October ended up with a box delivered to their door this week, just minutes before they were set to head to the airport for the event. In the box held the dress. In a now-viral video, an ebullient Marie unboxed the frock and ran to put it on. “i might’ve gotten a few tears on your dress @lizzo, my bad babe! Words dont suffice, and thank you isnt enough. But THANK YOU! I’m speechless.”
[Narrator: If you count squeals, they weren’t speechless.]
When she shared her dress, Lizzo made sure another rising star got the red-carpet moment they deserved, with a twist. Thanks to her, the accomplishments of a fat, Black, queer poet have been documented in mainstream circles—the Los Angeles Times, People, The Today Show, Page Six, Billboard, InStyle, Entertainment Tonight, NBC, ABC, Pop Sugar, and Marie Claire, among others, all respectfully covered the news, correct pronouns, and all.
But a deft move of social media pageantry also allowed Lizzo to help a kindred spirit amplify a message —and people—they both care deeply about.
“My emotion is for the people who are on the stage with me, the stories they shared. They’re not that unique; they just don’t get the platform!” said a tearful Lizzo, accepting the Emmy for her reality television show, Watch Out For the Big Grrrls, and surrounded by the very girls she had been watching out for. "When I was a little girl, all I wanted to see was me in the media. Someone fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me,” she said. “If I could go back and tell little Lizzo something, I’ll be like, ‘you gonna see that person, but bitch it’s going to have to be you.’”
Wishing you a weekend of breakthrough solidarity.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt
This edition of raceAhead was edited by Ashley Sylla
