Skip to content
  • Essence GU
  • Beautycon
  • NaturallyCurly
  • Afropunk
  • Essence Studios
  • Soko Mrkt
  • Ese Funds
  • Refinery29
  • WeLoveUs.shop
  • 2026 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
  • Celebrity
  • Fashion
  • Beauty
  • Lifestyle
  • Entrepreneurship
  • News
  • Shopping
  • Video
  • Events
  • Subscribe
Home • 2013 ESSENCE Music Festival

What Beauty Means to ESSENCE Festival Talent

What does beauty mean to you? That's the question we posed to some of the artists and speakers on this year's ESSENCE Festival lineup. Find out what they had to say.
By Monique Valeris · Updated October 28, 2020
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
01
Yolanda Adams
Yolanda Adams will perform at the 2013 ESSENCE Festival on July 7.
What Beauty Means to ESSENCE Festival Talent
02
Avery*Sunshine

“Clearly, there are people who are more attractive to the eye. There are particular things everybody is attracted to, but if that spirit and soul are not attractive, forget it.”

What Beauty Means to ESSENCE Festival Talent
03
Marsha Ambrosius

“Beauty is within. It sounds so cliché and generic, but it really is. It’s how you truly feel. I make sure that I am OK and that beauty from within just shines.”

What Beauty Means to ESSENCE Festival Talent
Michael Rowe
04
Iyanla Vanzant

“Beauty is a woman’s presence within the world that grows from how she treats herself. Beauty doesn’t have anything to do with the outside. How she holds herself  within herself will determine what she does to her outside. You can be beautiful in sweatpants or an evening gown, because it’s a state of mind—a state of being. It comes from within.”

What Beauty Means to ESSENCE Festival Talent
Michael Rowe
05
Tonya Lewis Lee

“Real inner beauty is about understanding that we are more than just our individual selves and that we are really connected. What I do affects you. Also, it really is about taking care of oneself mentally, physically, spiritually and intellectually. To me, that is true beauty.”

What Beauty Means to ESSENCE Festival Talent
06
Faith Evans

“Beauty is when you end up in a room and are able to evoke a good feeling in people, whether it’s a smile or a conversation that makes someone feel at ease.”

What Beauty Means to ESSENCE Festival Talent
JD Pht Bx & MCGM / Splash News
07
Jody Watley
Jody Watley
What Beauty Means to ESSENCE Festival Talent