Prepare to keep on fallin’ in love with Alicia Keys over a seriously inspiring parenting win.
The Grammy-winning singer shared a story on Instagram Saturday about her 4-year-old son, Genesis Ali, who felt ashamed for getting a rainbow manicure. His reaction, Keys said, made her “really frustrated” about the ways we judge each other.
Keys, who also shares son Egypt Daoud, 9, with husband Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, explained that Genesis recently joined her on a trip to the nail salon.
“He tells the lady that he wants rainbow colors on his nails. And she brings all of these colors and she paints each nail a different color,” she recalled in the Instagram video.
But Genesis apparently had a change of heart afterwards, fearing people might give him a hard time for choosing to wear nail polish.
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“After she painted his nails, he looked at me and he said, ‘Mommy, I don’t want this on my nails,’” Keys said. “He was like, ‘People are not going to like it.’”
“Can you believe this? He’s four and already understands the concept that someone is going to judge him because he chose rainbow color on his nails,” she added.
The former “Voice” coach encouraged her son to stick to his original decision, telling him not to care what anybody else thinks and sharing that plenty of men regularly wear nail polish.
“That made him feel better, but it just got me to thinking how completely judged we are all the time,” Keys continued, adding that she believes everyone has both masculine and feminine energies.
She went onto lament that people often don’t feel free to “explore these different sides of ourselves” because of the fear of being different.
“I oftentimes express the masculine energy that’s inside of me,” Keys shared. “And, all the time, if that happens, there are the judgments, and there’s the stereotypes, and there are all the energies that come towards that.”
Keys called for “less labels” and “more expressions” in the caption to the two-minute video.
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She appeared to further address her post in a series of Instagram Stories, sharing photos of boundary-breaking men — including Pharrell and Billy Porter — wearing dresses and rocking makeup.
In August, Keys posted a handful photos of herself and her husband snuggling with Genesis, who appeared to be wearing brightly-colored nail polish, captioning the post, “Family time is the BEST time.”
Genesis made headlines earlier this year when he had some fun with Taylor Swift at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. In an adorable video that quickly went viral, he smiled and waved at the singer, who waved back at him.
Keys made mention of their budding friendship on stage later that night, joking that Genesis was “trying to take Taylor out later tonight.”
“He’s working on it,” she added. “I’m not sure how it’s gonna go, but it looks pretty good right now.”
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