I’ve been listening to Lana Del Rey since I was 14, and over the years, her music, lyricism, aesthetic, and femininity have deeply shaped who I am as a woman. Through her artistry, she’s shown me the many ways to embrace womanhood, and that it’s okay to lean into your softness and vulnerability rather than shy away from it or feel embarrassed. Her music and poetry have always felt like a safe space for women—a space where we can explore our feelings without judgment. Her discography serves as a palette of emotions and experiences that women go through in different stages of life, offering a pathway to self-discovery and a deeper relationship with oneself.

One of the most powerful lessons that I’ve learned from Lana is that vulnerability isn’t a flaw, but a strength. She shows us how messy life can be sometimes and how lost you can feel under different circumstances. Her lyrics explore emotions that many women experience but rarely speak about openly. Lana shows us that it is okay to feel lost sometimes and that we can learn from the hurtful experiences in order to grow. What I’ve learned is that hearbreak and solitude can become a superpower. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, I’ve learned to transform those emotions into something meaningful, like art or writing, to overcome the pain. She is the reason I started feeling confident in sharing my own poems.

When Lana released her poet book Violets bent backwards over the grass I felt a deeper connection to her and myself. Her vulnerability in poems like “LA who am I to love you?” and “Sportcruiser” spoke to the same complexity of identity that I felt within myself. Her poetry made me feel that it’s okay to live in contradictions. You can desire something so much but let go in the same time. You can be both nostalgic and heartbroken but forward-looking. In a way, Lana gave me permission to embrace the multifaceted nature of being a woman—to accept that being emotional, poetic, and complex is not a weakness, but a form of strength.

Being a woman comes with complexities and expectations—society tells us to be emotional, but not too much; confident, but not too bold. Lana Del Rey’s art showed me that you can be all of this. She made me embrace my femininity without being ashamed of it.

Lana Del Rey’s influence on me goes well beyond her music. She has shown me how to fully accept the emotional intensity of life and find strength in my femininity and beauty, even when they don’t fit traditional ideas. Through her work, I’ve learned to live authentically, accepting the contradictions within myself. As a woman, her art has helped me see that there’s real beauty in our imperfections.