5:12 Lauren gets passionate. La lucha segue! Vote.
Gaby Wilson interviews Lauren for MTV News at the March For Our Lives, a student-led demonstration in support of tighter gun control. The event took place on 24 March 2018 in Washington DC, with sibling events held throughout hundreds of US cities and around the world. Watch the whole thing, and remember to vote.
(Addressing young people) This is your problem too. It is important for you to get involved. It’s okay for you to get involved. You’re not too stupid. You’re not too little. You’re not too dumb. You can learn and educate yourself at whatever age. Honestly you’re never even too old to start learning. You could be 80yrs old and have had a backwards-opinion your whole life, and now you’re here and you see this and you’re like, “Oh wait, maybe I don’t agree with myself anymore”, and that’s okay! Embrace that you don’t agree with yourself and that times are changing, and that you’re able to grow like that. Don’t be scared of that. And we should also not impede each other from being able to grow, because the main thing that’s going to be able to propel this movement is allowing other people to realise their mistake and believe against it. Because if we create a space where it’s one side versus another, we’re never going to get anywhere. We need to be on each other’s side, all of us together, in order to make this change effectively. And so we gotta leave that room for mercy and compassion for ignorance, because certain communities don’t have access to certain information. Certain types of people aren’t ever exposed to other ideologies. We have to really get with each other on helping each other, educating each other, but not alienating each other in the process.
9:17 Lauren shares her experience of spending her formative years away from home and her family as a member of Fifth Harmony.
Fifth Harmony talk with Zach Sang & The Gang on 25 February 2016 to promote their album, 7/27. It was uploaded in two parts on 26 February.
Loose transcript
Zach: Tell me at what moment in your life did you realise that the life you used to know was never going to be again. The moment you looked away from normalcy and you entered a new era.
Lauren: I don’t know if there’s ever a point where you step away from normalcy because that’s what keeps you grounded, and that’s what keeps your brain sane-
Normani: It’s about balance.
Lauren:-it’s to make sure that you know at the end of the day you’re still a normal person.
Camila: I still feel pretty normal.
Normani: Me too.
Lauren: I’m one hundred percent still normal too, but I guess the moment when that shift happened, for me it happened at the very beginning when we first went out to LA to start recording. I came out [to LA], I was 16yrs old and I was by myself. My parents didn’t come out with me, I was- I’m sorry, I’m already getting emotional thinking about it.
Dinah: It’s tough.
Lauren: <getting emotional> We were going through so much and there was so much going on, and there were four girls that I didn’t even know. It was so crazy and it changed me so much as a person. It was that time where I found myself, and I had to, it wasn’t a choice. It was like either find yourself or lose yourself, and then know who you are and stick to that. It was such a lesson for me at such a young age, but I’m so glad it happened- excuse me for getting emotional. It was intense.
Camila: It was hard.
Zach: When you’re between the ages of 13 and 20-
Lauren and Dinah: It’s intense.
Camila: They are formative years.
Lauren: And being a woman going through it, there’s so many hormones and emotions and things involved in being a woman with other women involved.
Camila: Being a woman with other women.
Lauren: Yeah, being a woman with other women, it’s hard. In the beginning it was like-
Normani: -a lot.
Lauren: Everything was so great though, I got blessed with four other people that are genuine people. It made it so much easier, once we got on the same page with each other, which is totally acceptable because we had just met each other. You gotta get to know each other.
25:23 Fifth Harmony answer a question on how they encourage positivity, especially with a passionate fan base who can be prone to expressing their support in negative ways.
On 29 August 2017 Fifth Harmony sat down with the BUILD Series to talk about their self-titled album and offer other interesting insights into the group.
Loose transcript
Audience member: Something that comes along [with the success you’ve achieved] is this vocal, passionate support from fans online that can sometimes delve into bringing other artists down, or kind of comparing other artists in a negative way. How do you deal with that and how do you continue to encourage positivity amongst [the fans]?
Normani: I think it’s a matter of us recognising that we’re a family and also recognising that we know that [the fans] are proud of us, and we love you so much. We work incredibly hard and I know you only want us to be happy, you want the best for us. You’re loyal, you’re die-hard, we’re genuinely a family and I love the fact that we’ve grown together. But we also are able to recognise and call each other out when we’re wrong. You recognise sometimes when we’re wrong, and vice versa. It’s just kind of like a back and forth, which is really beautiful. But also knowing that we can be successful, other artists can also be successful, and just recognising the beauty in that as long as it’s a positive thing and that they’re sharing something and making a difference in somebody else’s life. So I think that we can all be badass and that we can all be successful and kill it.
Lauren: I think it’s important also that [the fans] are like our “children”, so as “parents” we love for you to represent us the right way. Because we are all about love and positivity, and making sure people feel included, and equality; that’s all we talk about. So we would love for you to be an example of us, an extension of us, and to be positive and to spread light when you speak - to us too, because sometimes y’all are mean, you know what I’m saying? It’s a trust thing and it’s about really understanding what your presence online means, because what you say does matter and it does affect people and if someone reads it and you say something nasty that you would never say in person, you shouldn’t be saying it. Period. And that’s what we support. We support all of you being on Twitter, and doing your thing and stanning us. I love it. I love seeing your reaction videos and getting your tweets, but keep it positive!
Normani: And recognise that we’re resilient, we’re beautiful, and we don’t need to [resort to negativity] to prove it.
Lauren talks through the proposed 2018 Florida Constitutional Amendments with her Miami friends. Lauren posted this series of Instagram stories on 5 November 2018.
NB: I’m not sure what happened with her commentary on amendment 11 and 12. Either they didn’t get posted or I failed to record them.
Lauren listening to Pepe Billete’s commentary on the aforementioned amendments.
Camila features in a segment as part of Billboard’s Women in Music event on 30 November 2017, speaking about why she values fighting for the rights of undocumented immigrants in the context of the Trump administration.
Yo Americans! It’s the eleventh hour, make sure to vote in the 2018 US midterm elections by 6 November 2018.
I’ve always been really outspoken about immigrant rights because I just feel like this country was built on immigrants and people coming here with dreams and hopes and aspirations, and working their butts off to not only make a better a life for themselves but also contribute to this country and this culture. They’re friends, they’re neighbours, they’re valedictorians, they’re musicians, they’re really really active in the American community and they’re all living in a tremendous amount of fear right now because they’re unprotected and they could be deported at any time, anywhere, and going back to a country that they don’t even remember any more. They might not even speak that language any more. For me it’s really important to defend immigrant rights and to defend rights of Latinos and to defend my people. And I’ll always always fight for that.
Lauren chats with the Zach Sang Show on 2 November 2018 about her new single, Expectations, and embarking on her solo career. But really they end up talking about all manner of topics and Lauren is her thoughtful, sensitive and insightful self. Watch the whole thing.
38:04 Lauren’s take on school uniforms and not having to do her make-up or hair at an all-girls school, because she is so cute with her cute little voices and I 100% agree with her.
Loose transcript
Zach: -even down to the [school uniforms], I know you’re not-
Lauren: I loved uniforms.
Zach: Did you like it because you had something to wear every day?
Lauren: Yeah! And I didn’t have money like that, so there’s no way in fuck I could have been at any of those schools where you had to be wearing “the latest fashions”. I would have been there, it would have been like <impersonating a classmate speaking to her> “You’re poor”, I would have been like <pretends to cry> “Fuck you!”. Yeah, I loved not having to think about uniforms. And even being at an all-girls school; I didn’t have to do my make up or my hair. I would wake up in the morning, pick my hair up just like this <puts hair up in a ponytail> put a liga* in it, go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, put my outfit on, “Aight, bye” <does peace sign> “-gonna go to choir.”
camila_cabello I JUST VOTED IN MY STATE OF FLORIDA!!!!!!!! ELECTION DAY IS NOVEMBER 6 AND EARLY VOTING GOES TO NOVEMBER 4. GO TO VOTE.ORG TO FIND YOUR NEAREST POLLING PLACE, THIS WEBSITE’S INFORMATION IS SO CLEAR AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND. I AM SORRY FOR THE CAPITALS, I JUST FEEL REALLY EXCITED THAT I JUST VOTED BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IM TAKING MY FRUSTRATION AT THE INJUSTICES THAT HAPPEN IN OUR COUNTRY AND TURNING IT INTO ACTION!!! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US CAN TURN THOSE FEELINGS INTO ACTION WHEN WE SHOW UP TO VOTE. ONE VOTE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. WE CAN CONTRIBUTE AND HELP WRITE THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY JUST BY TAKING A FEW MINUTES OUT OF OUR DAY TO VOTE!!! ALSO ITS MY GRANDMAS FIRST TIME VOTING IN THE UNITED STATES AND SHE DID HER RESEARCH AND PREPARED HERSELF AND WE ARE ALL FEELING SO GOOD !!! LETS. GOOOO. LETS VOTE! ➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️VOTE.ORG
Visitvote.org to find out everything you need in order to vote in the US midterm election on 6 November 2018 (or get out and vote early if your state has early voting)
Lauren laments the current state of the public consciousness, and stresses the power and privilege of being able to vote:
I wish America cared as much about domestic terrorist attacks as they did about women fighting one another. I wish they had the same amount of energy they save to egg on drama & take that anger to the FUCKING polls to make sure people STOP DYING at the hands of White SUPREMACISTS. [1]
This country is completely BROKEN. divided into 3 categories. Alt-right fascist/terrorists who continue to get braver and are willing to incite a civil war, liberals who are fighting for radical shifts in the systems that have kept Alt-Right in power, and then apathetic watchers. [2]
The apathetic watchers, while claiming to be disinterested or oblivious to politics, are as guilty as the white supremacists because not taking a stance against this VIOLENT, hate-fueled, fear-mongering, FASCIST rhetoric is allowing it to be normalized and dismissed. [3]
We are in crisis mode and motherfuckers really wanna watch some women tear each other down. Really wanna report that shit and let it overpower the fact that a SYNOGOGUE just got shot up by a fascist who felt it was his right to kill survivors and relatives of holocaust survivors. [4]
We’re in this mess because our PRIORITIES as humans & active participants in our world r completely fucked. We can keep bitching about Trump on twitter but he’s makin REAL LIFE MOVES. So KEEP THAT ANGRY ENERGY you can have for DUMBASS drama on the internet for YOUR GODDAMN FUTURE. [5]
An amendment to my statement of there being three categories of people: There is a whole other group across the country who have had their right to vote taken from them. This country has an incredibly harsh, violent history of voter suppression. [6]
If you have the privilege of voting and the ability to get to a ballot, I encourage you to use it to stand up for those who have been silenced by the outstanding suppression. They need our voices the most. [8]
The election on Nov. 6 will tackle life changing decisions on healthcare, affordable housing, education & the basic capacity to live in this country. I again urge you to channel angry energy to these polls & make sure if you are lucky enough to be heard, that you are Loud & clear. [9]
Lauren on The Breakdown segment on MTV News, informing everyone of the importance and impact of voting in the US midterm elections on 6 November 2018. Vote.
(I’m not even American and I found this video to be super educational)
Lauren plays Minuet in G Major by Christian Petzold (previously attributed to JS Bach - I am a stickler for accuracy here). Video was taken on 15 October 2016 when Fifth Harmony were on the Europe leg of their 7/27 tour.
