Back when songs had meaning 🙏🏽 TLC ‘Unpretty’ (1999)

Gorgeous song

I’ve always loved TLC 💕

When I tell you I was *obsessed* with this song. I was obsessed. I was like this the prettiest shit I done heard at like age 7 😂😂😂

This is my favorite TLC song! I love the version with Left Eye rap verse

A powerful self-love anthem! ✨ 'Unpretty' is TLC's iconic song that tackles the heavy pressure women face regarding beauty standards and celebrates inner beauty. 🎤💖 🚨 Fun Fact: The song started as a poem written by T-Boz while she was in the hospital, after watching a Ricki Lake episode where men called women "fat pigs". She gave the poem to producer Dallas Austin, who adapted it into the pop-rock hit we know today.

God, what the hell happened? 😩

Music went ⬇️

My favorite bitches never looked better

Rest well Lisa. ❤️❤️❤️❤️🪽🪽🪽🪽

speak on it 💯💯

"Unpretty." TLC. 1999. The anti-beauty standard anthem when the beauty industry was worth $160 billion and getting bigger. "FanMail" album. April 1999. Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins wrote it. Not about other women. About herself. She had sickle cell anemia. Brain tumor at 19. Constant hospital visits. Industry told her she wasn't pretty enough. Too sick. Too real. The message: You're destroying yourself trying to match images that aren't even real. But here's what made it devastating: The music video. Directed by Paul Hunter. Girl getting plastic surgery consultation. Marking her face with a pen. Another girl making herself throw up. Another girl reading fashion magazines, hating her reflection. Real scenarios. No glamorization. MTV played it constantly. Peak TRL era. Between Britney and Christina videos selling sex. "Unpretty" showed girls crying in mirrors. The bridge. T-Boz singing about wanting to be beautiful for someone else. Then the realization: "I can be all the things you told me not to be, when you try to change me to fit your fantasy." 1999. Pre-Instagram. Pre-filters. Pre-influencers. Pre-Facetune. TLC was warning about beauty standards before social media made it 1000x worse. "Unpretty" went Top 10. Won MTV Video Music Award. But it didn't change anything. The industry got worse. Cosmetic surgery exploded. Diet culture intensified. Social media arrived. Now? Gen Z girls get Botox at 19. Face filters are default. Body dysmorphia is epidemic. TLC was right. Nobody listened. T-Boz has sickle cell. Still. Still touring. Still alive against odds. Still unpretty by industry standards. Still doesn't care. "Back when songs had meaning" - this one had meaning AND a warning. We ignored both. That's the tragedy.

I miss Lisa so much this song pretty much told about how toxic the beauty industry was and the BS that they’ve tried to sell women throughout the course time, including the media

@new___woman Very true. It's difficult to find such songs today.

Still love it!

My goddess🙌✨🙌✨ Loveeee 😘🫶💕

🫶🏼

Songs still have meaning.

I miss them :(

❤️❤️❤️

@officialchilli 🙌🏾🫶🏾❤️

Yal o was obsessed with this song at the age of 10!!!!! Like ommmmmmmg

👑👑👑

This was DEEEEEEEEEP during that time!!!!! They spoke to a lot of us who was in Elementary… Middle… High.. College or just DEALIN WITH SELF-ESTEEM!!!

A cultural event - and that’s following No Scrubs!!

❤️❤️❤️

@grok when did the song released?

@Sincere_KJ @grok It says in the title 😂

Where is Dallas?

Could u also post Pretty Hurts by Beyonce? That song always reminded me of TLC'S unpretty. I feel like its 1 of Beyonce's most underrated songs..didnt get a lot of attention but the lyrics were just as amazing as unpretty with the same message. Please post it..thanks so much