Kehlani Opens Up After Coming Out Live: 'I Didn't Plan To Come Out in That Way'

Kehlani is reflecting on her journey.

The 26-year-old It Was Good Until It Wasn’t star spoke out in an interview with Them. about coming out as a lesbian on Instagram Live earlier in the year.

Here’s what she had to say…

On coming out on Instagram Live last year: “I didn’t plan to come out in that way. I was going to just let my new music speak for itself. All the music I’ve been making has been from this new perspective and this new clarity. That s–t blew up and I didn’t expect it to when I said it — it just took its own life.”

On navigating the industry after coming out: “There was a lot that I, for the last couple years, felt like I was trying to figure out. And I feel like it was pretty obvious. I did a lot of big switch ups, where people would be like, ‘Oh, you getting nails longer than your hand now. When you first came out, you were wearing baggy pants and sports bras and blah, blah, blah.’ I think a lot of that came from me genuinely not knowing how to navigate myself versus who I had to be for the world.”

On exploring their identity in the public eye: “I was having full-blown identity issues [before]… [with] the balance of [my] masculinity and femininity. Especially being under the public eye. The pressure to be sexy, and what does sexy look like and mean and feel like to me? How does that trail into my participation in the fashion world? What does that mean for photo shoots? What does that mean for everything? There’s this extra gigantic layer of things that I have to think about besides just waking up and being myself.”

Find out what Kehlani said after her Instagram Live went viral.

For more from Kehlani, head to them.us.