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Exclusive: Fifth Harmony’s Lauren Jauregui on winning the AfterEllen Hot 100

Recently, you may have found yourself asking, “Who is Fifth Harmony and why am I so obsessed with them?” Girl, we get it. ’90s-style girl power and take-no-prisoners confidence are a recipe for idolatry. You voted all five women into the AfterEllen Hot 100, with 20-year old Lauren Jauregui landing at #1. No doubt, readers were moonstruck by the Miami native’s black velvet hair, oceanic green eyes and smoky singing voice. But it’s Lauren’s sharp wit and feminist Instagrams that had us shouting “literally me” at our phones.

(Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

Above all, Jauregui uses her platform for good, and that’s what really made us fall in love with her. She’s an LGBT ally, an activist and an artist. In the words of 5H themselves, she’s “pretty fucking dope.” Lauren took a moment away from her world tour to talk queer fandom, positive female influences and obviously, Beyoncé.

AfterEllen.com: Where are you right now?

Lauren Jauregui: I am currently in St. Louis, Missouri. Quite the place to be.

AE: What does it mean to you to be named the hottest woman of the year by women?

LJ: It’s such an honor. It makes me feel really nice about myself. Thanks, guys! I don’t even know, like, how to accept this. This is dope.

AE: Yeah, I mean you beat out Angelina Jolie, Superwoman, Jennifer Lawrence…

LJ: It’s kind of ridiculous. I don’t really know how I ended up in that category, thank you to all of the women who think that that’s true.

(Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

AE: Do you hear from a lot of queer female fans?

LJ: Oh, absolutely. I feel like our fan base is kind of, you know-we’re all about acceptance and love…We feel like a lot of our fans find acceptance in us and our message. We have so many people daily, like honestly, I can never get over it-people at our meet and greets that come up to us and just let us know that we’re the reason that they got out of depression; the reason that they found themselves and love themselves.

Lately, people have been coming out to us and, like, that being their first time that they tell anybody about it… It’s just-it’s really special for us. We love to be a sort of safe haven for people in our music, in our personalities or whatever ways that we can connect to them. So like, [the fact that] they can come through and they can feel that safe and open and feel like they can be themselves because of our inspiration is, like, so fucking dope.

AE: Why do you think Fifth Harmony resonates so deeply with the LGBTQ community?

LJ: I’m not sure, but maybe it’s ’cause of, like, the girl power, slash we’re all very different and ethnic women. We all sort of represent different types of girls and, like, normal girls in a way, you know? So maybe it’s just like people of all types, not even just LGBTQ, but of all types, just kind of flock to us ’cause it has to do with-they can resonate with somebody whether it’s, you know, skin color or personality or body type or style-whatever it is. They just resonate with somebody.

(Photo by Ernesto Distefano/Getty Images)

AE: Who are some women you really admire or look up to right now?

LJ: I really look up to Angelina Jolie. I think she’s incredible. The work she’s doing with refugees and stuff around the world; she’s just absolutely amazing. I think she’s also quite talented in her craft, and I love that she takes ownership of her craft. She’s always trying to better herself, and I think that’s really beautiful.

I also really, genuinely love fucking Beyoncé. I love her so much. I think she’s such an icon of our generation. She’s just, she’s incredible-she writes incredible music, and she puts on such a show, and she’s so strong, and that’s a beautiful thing. So I give her mad props for how powerful she is.

AE: What defines sexiness for you? What makes you feel sexy?

LJ: I think sexiness is confidence over everything. You can wear whatever you want and feel sexy. I could be wearing a turtleneck and a cardigan on top of it and full pants and feel sexy because it exudes from within. It’s about the way you carry yourself. It’s about the way that you believe in yourself and allow yourself the space to be whoever it is that you are, you know what I mean, as authentically as possible. That’s what sexiness is to me.

AE: What keeps you positive and optimistic?

LJ: My family and friends. I have a really solid support system around me and my parents, my brother and sister are, like, my best friends. They all make me feel so loved and so safe, and I think that’s something that a lot of people don’t have in this world. So I’m just, I’m very blessed to have that in my life. And they do give me a lot of strength… I went through a period where I forgot about that, and I felt very lonely because I kind of isolated myself in thinking that I was alone-because of distance and because of all of the time that passes so quickly. But I really, genuinely recently found root in them again and it really does help de-stress, like when you need to talk about it with somebody who loves you and who has your best interests at heart.

via Getty

AE: You just won two VMAs. Can you describe that experience?

LJ: Ayyyy! Yeah, that was fucking crazy. I can’t believe we beat Beyoncé and Rihanna in a category. That’s the craziest thing in the world to me. I’ll never believe it. I think that they’re incredible, and everyone in our categories was so amazing. But it was a surreal experience to be in that and amongst that elite sense of music right now. So that was amazing. I can’t even, I can’t even tell you-I had such a good time!

AE: You’re pretty outspoken online. Why is it important for you to speak out on feminism, equality and LGBTQ issues?

LJ: I think it’s really important for anyone who’s in a position where they can bring awareness to a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to information… I’m in a position where people listen to me whether I want them to or not, or whether I want to tell them something interesting or not. So I feel like it’s kind of my-I only speak for myself, everyone can use their platform for something different-but I feel like it’s really important to me, all of these issues, for people to know that equality means that we’re all just literally human beings floating on a gaseous, stardust ball in the middle of space. So we’ve got to just kind of get out of this place where we divide ourselves into all these different compartments of human and just get down to the fact that we’re all humans working to better ourselves and fix those sort of things so that everyone can live happy and healthy lives.

AE: What’s the craziest thing you got to do this year with Fifth Harmony?

LJ: I think-dude, I got to do so many crazy things this year, honestly. I’m so blessed to be part of this group. Let me tell you: I have done things in my life that I never ever would’ve thought that I could do. I went to Japan, and I brought my mom with me, and that was insane because I love traveling, and I love experiencing different cultures and learning about new people and getting sort of immersed in those kind of places. Granted, we were only there for a couple days, but the fact that I even got the opportunity to see that side of the world and New Zealand and Australia-and then to go to Europe, and then come here, and have a European tour, and have people want us places like that. It’s just such a blessing and so mindboggling to me that I’ve reached a place in my life at 20-years old that I can do things like that and inspire people around the world. That’s so insane.

(Photo by C Flanigan/FilmMagic)

AE: Do you feel like Fifth Harmony has an important place in pop culture right now?

LJ: I hope so, because I feel like our message is really beautiful. And I feel like when it comes down to it, like, five girls putting all of their things aside to come together for the commonality of one thing and to make that happen for ourselves and make our dreams come true, and to, you know, be in a place in our careers where we have our names next to and are nominated against Beyoncé and Rihanna and things like that; these are things that we couldn’t do without each other… I feel like people seeing that is kind of really dope.

And also, like I said earlier, the fact that we all represent so many different cultures and ethnicities and body types and women. Like, different forms of and embodiments of strong and confident women. It’s such an important message. We have so many girls at our meet and greets tell us, like, you know, “I found myself because I looked at you guys and I found myself in you guys.” Y’all are all different, and you come from different places, but you’re beautiful, and you resonate with that…That to me is so important. So, anyone that is impacted by that in pop culture, that’s dope.

AE: OK, let’s do a quick lightning round. Current favorite song?

LJ: “Loner” by Kali Uchis.

AE: Rihanna or Britney?

LJ: Ri.

AE: Fave track off 7/27?

LJ: “No Way.”

AE: Secret talent?

LJ: I draw.

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AE: What are you reading right now?

LJ: I’m currently reading Charles Bukowski-it’s a poetry book published later, like way later, like in 2006 I think. I forgot what it’s called right now. I’m not currently with it.

AE: Biggest female influence?

LJ: I honestly really love Alicia Keys. I’m having, like, a moment with Alicia Keys right now.

AE: I saw your Instagram.

LJ: Yeah! I’ve always loved her very much because of her musicianship and, like, she’s just an incredible artist, pianist, songwriter, lyricist, singer-she’s incredible. But also, the fact that she’s been not wearing makeup lately and just sort of, you know, like fuckin’ the status quo. I’m obsessed with that. I think that it’s so amazing that she can embrace herself and her beauty for all that she is because she’s such a dope person.

AE: Totally. Last show you binged?

LJ: Orange is the New Black.

AE: Duh.

LJ: Yeah, like, no duh.

Follow Lauren on Twitter and Instagram and make sure to congratulate her on being number one.

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