Victoria Monét Found a Sliver of a Silver Lining After Being ‘Frustrated’ With PCOS Symptoms

Larisha Paul
·2 min read
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Victoria Monét at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 4 - Credit: Gilbert Flores/Billboard/Getty Images
Victoria Monét at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 4 - Credit: Gilbert Flores/Billboard/Getty Images

There are millions of women living with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, an underdiagnosed chronic condition that can have major effects on physical appearance, as if the internal hormonal turmoil wasn’t enough. Victoria Monét has been facing the mental and physical impact of living with the condition, often referred to as PCOS, while the stages she’s booked to perform on — and by extension the amount of eyes on her — have continued to grow exponentially in size. But the musician has found a sliver of a silver lining while weathering the storm.

“Welp. I gained a lot of weight and it went a lot of places lol face, arms, tummy and most effectively … datassss,” Monét wrote in an Instagram story while sharing a photo from her Coachella set. In the image, the singer and songwriter’s hair is flowing, both her hands are wrapped around her mic, and the back-facing shot centers her figure as a visual centerpiece even more attention-demanding than the full moon projected onto the stage. “I usually am so critical and frustrated by it because PCOS has me really messed up,” she admits. “But optimistically, at least now theres two moons on the stage.”

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Monét’s debut studio album, Jaguar II, contended, in some ways, with this sense of confidence that wasn’t always drawing from reality. While recording the album, she welcomed her first daughter into the world, and was suddenly juggling motherhood with building her musical empire and remaining her own person.

“When I was creating ‘On My Mama,’ I almost had to go into a character because, if I was myself, I had other things to express. I remember being in the studio trying to balance a whole new way of life,” she told Rolling Stone last year about the album’s most popular single. “It was really hard to tap in all of the way to what I should be singing about, talking about, what people want to hear from me, what would sound good on a song. I had to tap out of Victoria and go into a character thinking a little bit outside of myself so that I could talk to myself and be like: ‘Bitch, get it together. You look great. You just did this really amazing thing. Let’s think about the positive parts of this.'”

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