Betty Who — The Bare Magazine

Betty Who has proven to be an unstoppable force in the world of contemporary pop music. She’s absolutely killing it with her newest record BIG! which is now streaming on all platforms along with Betty’s new line of cool merch! The album lives up to its namesake as an unapologetic, uplifting anthem, tackling themes of self-acceptance, gender, and sexuality. We had the absolute pleasure of getting to know Betty and her vibrant personality while learning the ins and outs of her newest project BIG! Check out the photo diary below and our conversation on her 2023 tour, gender, vintage fashion and her life’s/beauty bare essentials.

The Bare Magazine: You just released your most recent album BIG! How does it feel?

Betty Who: It feels really, really good! I prioritized making music about surviving…The record actually helped me find myself as I was making the album. It clarified a lot of my identity and where I'm at now. I think about the adversity that particularly queer youth have to overcome and experience. When I sing songs that are about “keep on keeping on” and staying true to yourself, I’ll see young kids at a show having emotional experiences and feeling seen, and I'm like- this is the whole point. I'm so blessed to do this thing.

Bare: The color red is very prevalent in the new album, was this a conscious choice?

BW: It was definitely a conscious choice. I think of red as being the most masculine color- like a red Porsche, like every 50-year-old man's midlife crisis color. The color wave that kept coming forward was black and white and then this strong red to make everything feel really powerful, almost aggressive.

Bare: Who are some artists that inspired your record?

BW: My mood board for the record sonically had a lot of Kenny Loggins on it, Go West, Phil Collins, Genesis. Steve Perry is one of my favorite vocalists of course- what a king. I wanted to make a record that sounded like testosterone…I was listening to a lot of coked-out, 80s, masculine, sports car types. I think even less musically, but style-wise, of course, David Bowie is one of the most transformative artists on the planet. His philosophy and ability to transform himself, how he was always playing a different character until he wanted to be himself on stage. I think I am inspired by people who are committed. I love commitment. And I think I've always been afraid of it in my artistic life. So now I'm like, “I just have to do it. I have to go there fully, to see how it feels.”

Bare: You’ve just begun your 2023 BIG! Tour, what’s your favorite aspect about touring?

BW: Looking out into the audience. There's something really self-serving about it- but I've been doing it for long enough where I'm used to that. Now it’s a little bit less validating but in a healthy way. Where I’m able to survive without the applause when it's not here. I think I learned how to do that in 2020. I love when I look out into the audience and people are singing the songs I wrote, not to me, but to each other. Like two best friends or a couple. That's the show that makes me cry. Like immediately. Because now, I don't do this to be adored, I do this because I want to make music that plays a part in your life. To watch people have experiences with the music, with each other at the concert, it’s the whole thing. Live music has been one of the only places where we get to come together and just share a thing we love.

Bare: Your partner also happens to be your tour photographer! How has it been collaborating?

BW: It's been really nice. Zak and I have an amazing relationship with work together. When we met so young we both shared this philosophy that our work was going to be the thing that we had to focus on and prioritize. I don't think our relationship would have survived had either of us been more sensitive about that. We both get it, this is how it goes. We're building our lives and chasing dreams and that takes sacrifice and lots of weeks away and all of those kinds of things. His photography only gets better. As he gets older he is more dedicated and more creative. He's really finding himself right now and has come into an exciting time as a photographer. The way that people see my life is so often through his lens, and there's no one else I would rather capture me because that's how we fell in love. It's such a beautiful thing when I think about it, like having the world see me through him. The way I see myself is so often skewed and I feel like he has more truth in his perception.

Bare: Seeing an LGBTQ+ person represented in mainstream pop culture can be so powerful to young queer people. Does being considered a queer icon intimidate you?

BW: I always felt a lot more comfortable about it when I was less queer presenting. I felt like an ally. Because it's interesting that I married a man. I'm in this heterosexual relationship and have been for a long time. Zak is my dude, that's my person! It just kind of worked out that way. As I got older and more comfortable in our relationship, I realized how that doesn’t also mean that I can't have the life and community, and experience that is my queer identity. Leaning into that and being comfortable identifying as that has taken me a long time. Because I don't want to take up space and make queer people feel like I'm using this label when I just go home and I get to be straight. I don't identify as that. I understand that I know who I am, but I know that can be sort of difficult to understand or quantify when you're outside of it. I feel really differently about that now. I think I feel really proud of this version of myself. I'm just trying to be on the ride and super psyched about where I'm at now. The less I try to be a woman by societal standards the more powerful I feel.

Bare: How would you describe the evolution of your personal style?

BW: I'm such an eBay girl. That's really where all my favorite pieces come from. I feel so at odds with clothing a lot of the time because of my size and dressing between the gender binary. I like to feel more individual. Like I'm a little bit more timeless or classic. Vintage fashion helps me express that so much more authentically. I don't like vintage clothes that are cool, like $1,200 pieces. No, no, I'm trying to buy an $8 jacket that has all the personality and the riff and the whole thing. Especially for low-key red carpets, people will be like, ‘Oh, what are you wearing?” And I'm like, “I bought this suit at Goodwill in Michigan for about $12”...The more I play with gender, the more I find my own lane that lives outside of the gender binary. I think I've always had this idea of what a woman should look like on stage. I would present one way and then I'd get on stage and all of a sudden, I'd be totally dolled up and then have on the biggest eyelashes I could find. And then COVID hit and I didn't wear makeup for two years. When things started to sort of start up again I’d gotten really used to my bare face. And when I put a ton of makeup on, it really transforms me- which I think is the beautiful and incredible part about makeup. I love how transformative it can be. I still love to play with makeup and love to do different looks for fun, especially for shoots. But when it comes to my music and expressing myself, I just want to I want to see my face. I want to be like yeah, that's my face. I'm not tricking anybody. I'm not playing a game. I'm not impersonating a version of myself. This is the realest it's gonna get…

Bare: Do you have specific fashion inspirations?

BW: I'm obsessed with Diane Keaton. Jane Fonda too. As far as her 80s Five as well as now today like I love powerful old women. One of my favorite categories of women is just people who hold on to their style. At any age, they just continue to express themselves in these cool fun ways. I'm really inspired by Christine and the Queens. I think they are one of the artists who I look at as doing something really impactful and special and powerful…

Bare: You were recently featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, how was it?

BW: It's always fun when I get to be a part of something that I've been watching as a consumer for so long, right? Thanksgiving is my mom's favorite holiday, so I always try to be with her wherever she is. 9am the parade goes on the TV, whether it's muted or just turned down in the background, we're all having our coffee and it is it's such a huge part of the tradition. When I arrived in my hotel room in New York I saw Macy's had left me this Thanksgiving Day Parade blanket. I was like, oh my god, I'm really doing this. It felt so exciting to be a part of something that's so iconic. Like boy, what a gift.

Bare: Please list your 5 bare beauty essentials.

Dr. Dennis Gross Night Cream. that's an oil-free moisturizer that makes me feel young and beautiful.

Gua-sha.

Makeup Forever HD foundation concealer

Boy Brow on the eyebrows

The Oribe texture spray. For the last 10 years that's been the only texture spray that's gone in my hair.

Bare: Please list your 5 life’s bare essentials.

My Apple Watch. I feel like a spy kid a little bit wearing it, but I am addicted to it.

My Nike windbreaker. I have a windbreaker collection that I'm actually very proud of.

The Westwing. Me and Zach are watching it right now. I've been watching West Wing since I was 10 years old. I often will cycle through all seven seasons, and then take a break and start all over again.

Athletic Greens. I take it every morning. It's the first thing I do when I wake up. It makes me feel like I'm alive. It's curbed my caffeine addiction because I was up to six cups a day. And so I drink Athletic Greens now and I'm like, wow, this is magic. I didn't know this was possible.

Hicks. My dog is my best friend, my son. I love him so much.