Normani recalls feeling ‘hidden’ as Fifth Harmony’s only Black member

Speaking with Law Roach and Keke Palmer, Normani discussed how she learned to use style to shine.

Normani is sharing more of what it was like to be the only Black member of the female pop group Fifth Harmony.

On Wednesday, during an appearance at the launch of Law Roach’s brand new book “How to Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World’s Only Image Architect,” alongside Keke Palmer in Los Angeles, the R&B singer recalled how she used to feel “hidden.”

“As a Black girl in the music industry, but also as a woman in society, always being told that you’re not the standard of beauty or wasn’t enough. I’ve always used fashion to be vocal,” Normani said, reported Women’s Wear Daily.

She added whenever she felt like she wasn’t getting big enough parts in songs, “I felt I could really depend and rely on my fashion to speak for me, which was really an outlet. It’s saved me in so many ways, and it was a form of expression that I was able to use when I felt I wasn’t really given the opportunity to have a voice the way I wanted to or deserved to.”

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When asked how she made the transition from the group to a solo career when Fifth Harmony disbanded in 2018, Normani said, “It all ended so fast at a very high level,” People magazine reported.

She continued, “I was just really grateful to have the opportunity to do things my way because I felt like for so long, I felt hidden.”

“I was the only Black girl. Not to say that the girls didn’t want to be there for me, but I don’t think that they knew how to because my experience was my own,” the singer explained.

Normani, who has been releasing singles since 2018, celebrated the release of her debut solo album, “Dopamine,” in June. 

During the book event, Palmer and Roach echoed her sentiments about how fashion can be a tool for expressing one’s identity.

“Fashion sometimes has a bad name,” Palmer said, according to WWD. “It can feel elitist. It can feel un-inclusive. It can feel like something you’re wondering how to crack into and become a part of. But when you do feel like there’s a way that you can show up and you can crack an image that allows you to show up the way you want to show up, to be preserved the way you feel inside, that’s when you have your fashion story.”

Roach’s book delves into his approach to styling and intersperses it with lessons he’s learned about life and the fashion industry along the way.

Above all else, he said, “F— the rules!”

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