Alicia Keys gave her son a boost of confidence after he worried people would judge his rainbow manicure

Singer and former The Voice judge Alicia Keys is calling on society to stop judging others for how they want to present themselves. In a November 10th Instagram video, Keys saidshe’s “been thinking about how over-labeled and over-judged we all are,” and used an experience she had with her son Genesis to show just how potent societal judgments really are.

Gabriel Olsen / Stringer, Getty Images
Gabriel Olsen / Stringer, Getty Images

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“Can you believe this?” Keys said. “Four years old. He’s four and he already understands the concept that someone’s going to judge him because he chose rainbow colors on his nails.”

Keys said she told Genesis to “stick with” his decision to paint his nails rainbow. “You chose it. You liked it. You do it,” she said in the video. And after telling him that so many other boys and men paint their nails, too, Genesis became more confident in his decision.

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Family time is the BEST time 🤗🤗🤗

A post shared by Alicia Keys (@aliciakeys) on Aug 28, 2019 at 2:23pm PDT

After having to convince her son to keep his painted nails, Keys began to think more about how “completely judged” we all are, “all the time.”

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She added that she, too, often expresses the masculine energy inside of her and deals with the judgmental blowback, and feels frustrated having to watch her boys go through the same thing when they choose to express their feminine energies.

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She called her video a “rant,” but we’re calling it a sermon. Amen, Alicia—we could not agree with you more. Judging others’ decisions that have no impact on our own lives is unnecessary. If we all practiced the “you do you” mentality, the world would be a much more accepting place.