Our woman crush this Wednesday is Tori Kelly. Besides her voice being gorgeous, her song “Unbreakable Smile” is extremely catchy with empowering lyrics.
She is a great example to women — and people in general — everywhere. Instead of going along with what the music industry wants for her, she’s taking a stand for herself and her music.
Her last line, “But don’t mistake kindness for weakness,” is one of my favorites. I feel like in our culture, we’ve started to expect “strong” women to have tough exteriors, staring down and arguing with whoever may disagree with them. On the other hand, women who are kind, generous, and caring have a tendency of being walked over — their kindness taken for granted.
I love Tori Kelly’s song for so many reasons (reasons which you can see just from reading the amazing lyrics below), but I especially love that it says that being kind is NOT a weakness. A strong woman is someone who knows what she believes, knows what she stands for, and can’t be persuaded or forced to compromise those beliefs.
“Unbreakable Smile”
La dee da da da da da da da, yeah
Somebody told me fame is a disease
You start singing the blues when you start seeing the green
But I think it’s all about what you choose
The way you live your life depends on you
That’s when I realized I wanna make a difference
Change other people’s lives, give hope, even for a moment
Use my name for good and change the game I could
Because to make it you think I gotta act a certain way,
Be a little bit insane, live a little, it’s okay
I guess we have different definitions of living, but you’ll twist my words anyway
You’ll say that I’m naïve, like I don’t have a past,
You’re the one being deceived, I see right behind the mask
Trying to stir me up and get me mad
I smile because happiness is all I have, so
La da da da dee, you’re not breaking me
La dee da da da, ain’t got time for ya, singing
La da da da dee, you won’t shatter me
La dee da da da, got an unbreakable smile
You see me hanging with my fam, but that don’t mean I’m living in a bubble
You’ll find me at church, but that don’t mean I can’t cause trouble
Stir up a little scene ’cause isn’t that what you want?
For me to mess up, so you can dress up some story
Saying, Tori this’ll sell more records
But I’d rather make ’em yawn than be a pawn on your chessboard
So call me boring, call me cookie cutter
Call me what you want
A matter of fact
Just say it loud and don’t st-stutter
‘Cause I know who I am, yeah I’m still the same
Just a California girl with big dreams
Thinking maybe they’ll let me sing songs about real things
And baby who knows maybe I can sell out shows without taking off my clothes
God made me sexy, I don’t care if only I know
La da da da dee, you’re not breaking me
La dee da da da, ain’t got time for ya, singing
La da da da dee, you won’t shatter me
La dee da da da, got an unbreakable smile
Oh oh [2x]
And I’ll just keep on singing.
La da da da dee, you’re not breaking me
La dee da da da, ain’t got time for ya
La da da da dee, you won’t shatter me
La dee da da da, got an unbreakable smile
I might be smiling, yes
But don’t mistake kindness for weakness