Janelle Monae

Music is an art form that I love dearly, and it's allowed me to bring so many people together and meet so many people.

I love Fun. They're great guys. They're incredible artists and musicians.

I love the mystery behind things.

One of my core values is to help redefine what it means to be a strong and beautiful woman in the music and fashion worlds and to empower the wonderful things that make us unique.

Maybe I'm outdated in thinking this, but because I'm a young black woman and don't see very many being the lead in a film, I have this fear: 'Will I be working?'

I have not lost any of my crazy, fearless, raw, soulful, eclectic side and I plan on continuing to tell universal stories in an unforgettable way.

My grandmother was the matriarch. If you didn't have a place to stay, if you needed food, if you were just coming out of jail or rehab, you went to her. Watching her in our family and our wider community was what inspired me and still does.

Children go with whatever makes them feel good - like if that's the color green or orange, they do that with their clothes. As I've grown older, everything reversed. My music, my personality - onstage those things became my colors.

I believe it's time that women truly owned their superpowers and used their beauty and strength to change the world around them.

Some songs you get. Some songs you may not. And I think that's the beauty of art: to question and to ask, to understand the deeper meaning after two or three or four listenings.

I don't even know at what age I started, because it's always been there. Performing... creating... it's in my DNA.

I take goldenseal, Echinacea and cod liver oil when flying to boost my immune system.