Megan Thee Stallion, née Megan Pete, is waiting for reinvention. Earlier this yr, the Houston local grew to become 30, sharing a Saturn go back–themed photograph shoot on Instagram whole with cosmic glam, dark-goddess power, and a nod to the transformation the rapper has long past thru over the previous few years. If you’ve gotten talked to any of your woo-woo buddies (or survived your individual astrology spiral), you know that your Saturn go back is a duration steadily outlined by way of the self-reflection, expansion, and coming-of-age demanding situations taking dangle of you between the ages of 27 and 30. For many within the track industry, it is a supply of album inspiration. The ruling planet is steadily referred to as existence’s biggest instructor, stuffed with difficult love and karmic classes. For Pete, that lesson appears to be about energy—how to offer protection to it, wield it, and evolve with it.
And evolve she has. The girl we met right through her “Hot Girl Summer” breakout in 2019 is not long past, however she’s grown. She’s sharper and softer in the fitting puts. Pete is much less inquisitive about proving her price and extra occupied with embodying it. Her 3rd album, Megan, is not just a victory lap—it is a remark, one that claims, “I’ve done the work, I’ve taken the hits, and I’m still standing stronger, smarter, and shinier than ever.”
“Everything that I do, I do it because it’s my own choice,” Pete affirms right through our dialog on a Saturday afternoon. “I am my own person. I am a person, a human being, and I’m just it. I don’t need anybody else to tell me if I’m the shit or not.”
The remaining 5 years had been a whirlwind for the rapper. Since turning 25, Pete has gained 3 Grammy Awards, based her personal impartial document label, graduated from Texas Southern University with a Bachelor of Science in well being management, and shaken up the web along with her meals overview on the 2025 Met Gala. (Before you ask, she confirms she’s no longer banned from the development, despite the fact that she did damage its “no phones” rule.) Pete has launched into a lot of excursions—the latest being her world Hot Girl Summer Tour, a 36-stop flex throughout North America and Europe—and had a viral Coachella 2025 efficiency, the place she stunned the group with Queen Latifah and Ciara. Not to say the numerous purple carpets, track movies, and string of celebrated singles along Cardi B, Beyoncé, and Ariana Grande. Megan Thee Stallion has the type of résumé maximum artists spend their whole careers chasing, and she or he’s simply getting warmed up.
She’s accomplished all of it after which some whilst navigating inconceivable private loss, relentless public scrutiny, and headlines no 20-something will have to need to bear in actual time. Now, at 30, Pete’s no longer chasing moments. She’s development a legacy. The rapper has conquered track (her first unmarried of the yr, “Whenever,” is out now), style, and now tequila along with her newest logo challenge, Chicas Divertidas (a cheeky Spanish translation of “fun girls”). On the horizon? Her very personal swimming wear line, fittingly titled Hot Girl Summer. Could there be a greater identify? Probably no longer.
(Image credit score: Future)
“As the creator of Hot Girl Summer, I curate the vibes of the summer. … [It’s] how I like to party and how I like to turn up. I wanted to expand beyond just vibes in a going-out sense, and I wanted to have a uniform for that,” Pete explains of her option to challenge into swimming wear. The line—introduced in collaboration with Walmart—gives 18 head-turning, beach-ready items, each and every dripping in self belief and high-octane glamour. Think fringe-trimmed bikinis, gold-foiled one-pieces, and sultry snakeskin corsets that flow seamlessly from sun-soaked afternoons to late-night purposes. The items nearly ooze intercourse enchantment and an simple self belief, a testomony to the truth that Pete sketched all of the preliminary assortment herself. She jokes that some early designs will have driven the envelope somewhat too some distance, even for America’s greatest store. “The line is probably gonna be one of the sexiest things that I’ve seen in Walmart,” Pete says, adopted by way of her unmistakable boisterous giggle filling the air. With the release of Hot Girl Summer, Pete turns into the primary hip-hop artist in historical past to have their very own swimming wear line. Talk about elevating the bar.
Just like along with her track, Pete is intentional in regards to the offers she makes. Partnering with Walmart for the Hot Girl Summer swimming wear line wasn’t only a glad coincidence—it used to be rooted in objective. The incontrovertible fact that the gathering is to be had at over 500 retail outlets national and all items ring in underneath $30 method she’s making swimming wear simple and democratic for all Hotties. “I’ve created such a bond with a lot of my Hotties, and I feel like I just know what they want,” she explains, nodding to the road’s accessibility. “I want people to feel confident in it and like they had a little piece of me wherever they go this summer.”
But self belief, Pete explains, is a lot more than simply what you seem like. It’s nearly like you’ll really feel the deep female rage radiating off the display when she talks about deconstructing the perception of getting a “bikini body.” “You should wear whatever you want to wear whenever you feel like it—not when you’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve lost five pounds, and I can finally wear this swimsuit,'” she pleads. “You need to be confident because when you’re confident, you make the clothes look better.”
One most effective wishes to have a look at our duvet shoot in Miami, the place Pete stepped right into a tropical, lush paradise dressed in the items from her line. The designs are deeply Megan Thee Stallion, aligning along with her private sense of favor and the fiery Texan warmth. “In some capacity, I’ve always had on a bikini at some point, whether it was going to the pool or mixing and matching bikinis with jeans,” she says, alluding to the foundation of the road. “It’s also inspired by vintage swimwear and models I used to look at for inspiration—like Naomi Campbell or Tyra Banks on the runway—[and] things that made me feel good when I was coming up.”
Style is an impressive pressure of trade for up-and-coming artists, who’re steadily guided by way of groups forcing them to suit the mildew of what a star will have to and should not appear to be. A celeb’s glance is steadily hypercurated by way of a big crew of fellows in fits and stylists, who put them in a way field of what is deemed suitable for his or her logo. Pete admits that her symbol used to be anything she used to get misplaced in sooner than reconnecting with who she truly is and centering that model of herself above all else. “My whole vibe and silhouette changed, and I feel like it really wasn’t me when I would let people dress me in the beginning,” she says. Before the arena knew her for “Savage,” it used to be simply Megan Thee Stallion and her shipment pants, footwear, and booty shorts in opposition to the arena when she used to be onstage right through the early days of her occupation. “As I kept going and I realized I could use the word ‘no,’ my style definitely started to form back into who I am now,” she provides. “I definitely learned that I don’t have to dress how people expect me to dress like a ‘celebrity.'”
(Image credit score: Future)
While the scandalous bikinis and thigh-high boots act as an armor for Pete, there is a softer, extra prone facet that comes out when she talks about the best way style makes her really feel. She divulges she steadily wears her favourite T-shirts when she’s in Megan Pete mode as in comparison to her Megan Thee Stallion personality. They’re nearly like a safety blanket, she admits, and when paired with denims and a couple of signature chains, the glance turns into her model of informal camouflage.
Fashion, for Pete, is not just about efficiency; it is about coverage, convenience, expression, and keep watch over. Just take her have a look at the 2025 Met Gala, for starters. The artist paid homage to probably the most first pioneers in Black stardom, Josephine Baker. “She was a trailblazer, and in that sense, when you see a woman daring to be different at a time where it definitely wasn’t accepted, history just repeats itself,” Pete says. “I was going through a list of different Black women who had broken ceilings, and it’s only right to honor them as well. I just wanted people to remember that Josephine was one of the original baddies.” Baker and Black ladies at massive are the spine of society, steadily pioneers of the whole lot deemed cool and classy ages sooner than the hundreds undertake the similar issues. It’s anything Pete honors in her paintings, day in and day trip. “Black women have always been the blueprint, so you’ve just got to give flowers when they’re due,” she provides.
(Image credit score: Future)
By all accounts, Megan Thee Stallion is able to rise up and insist the general public’s consideration much more in 2025. She teases a string of singles doubtlessly losing later this yr, even supposing a full-bodied album is but to materialize. (“I’m finding exactly what I want to sound like this year,” Pete tells me.) She’s already making her sport plan for the following industry she’s launching. (Perhaps within the meals area? I be sure you inform her the Hotties are hard a meal-prep cookbook in her feedback phase.) With the debut of the Hot Girl Summer swimming wear line, Megan Thee Stallion is not just a rapper. She’s a full-blown multi-hyphenate. “I just want this hot girl shit to be worldwide. I don’t want it to only be about one thing,” she admits. “I want to take over all the spaces I want to be involved in.” Megan Thee Business Woman, if you are going to! Above all, although, Pete tells me she’s doing this for the ladies who see her taking on area. “I feel like I’ve been through some of the most horrible things in my life, and I feel like a lot of people wanted to count me out. … I even wanted to count me out. At one point, I didn’t even know if I could keep going,” she says. “But you know what? There is somebody that is going through something equally as bad, and they’re watching to see what I’m gonna do next—like, ‘Is she gonna be better? Can she prevail?’ And I did, and I do every day.”
Megan Thee Stallion will have began as a viral sensation with a hearth freestyle and a dream, however in 2025, she’s the embodiment of resilience wrapped in rhinestones. At the guts of the entire hustle is a lady who is nonetheless evolving, nonetheless dreaming, nonetheless appearing up for herself and for the ladies looking at. She’s rewriting the principles of what it method to be a rap famous person, a CEO, and a cultural pressure, all on her personal phrases. So what is subsequent for Megan Thee Stallion? Whatever she rattling neatly pleases. When the new girl trainer says she’s simply getting began, you higher imagine her.
Photographer: Kanya Iwana
Stylist: Eric Archibald
Hairstylist: Kellon Deryck
Makeup Artist: Diana Shin
Manicurist: Ginger Lopez
Special Thanks to The Standard Spa, Miami Beach
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