After it was revealed that Beyoncé wasn’t interviewed for her September Vogue cover story, the NY Times did some digging and revealed she is the only cover celebrity star not to submit to an interview with the magazine in the past five years. Rather the article included a short essay on her star quality by Pulitzer price winning writer, Margo Jefferson, who was asked to do it as a think piece by Vogue, not anyone in Beyoncé’s camp.
According to the article, she has chosen not to partake in any q&a exchanges since May 2014, with the Times speculating Beyoncé has concluded that “face-to-face interviews are not in her interest.” The story caused enough of a stir that the Times dedicated another article entirely to reader’s responses.
While she may not participate in interviews, one can argue she often does communicate with her fans through frequent updates on her Instagram feed and website with mostly captionless pictures of herself and occasionally her family. She spent a lot of time in the public eye while on tour this time last year with Jay Z, and also was included in Nicki Minaj’s “Feeling Myself Video,” released in May 2015.
In June she created a stir when she make a big to-do about an appearance that turned out to be a prerecorded announcement (sans reporters) about becoming a vegan. Her YouTube channel is also updated frequently, including a video six days ago related to her efforts to provide aid to a pediatric hospital in Haiti.
So yea, she’s hardly radio silent. Our best guess is she’s concluded that communicating with the press too often leads to probing and prying questions about controversial topics, as well as ones related to her husband and Blue Ivy, whose privacy she repeatedly has expressed as job No. 1. Think about it, Blue was born January 1, 2012, and two years later exchanges with reporters are over.
She says as much in an ABC Good Morning America interview she conducted in May 2013 while in a tour stop in London, “And I’m very protective. I just want to make sure that she can have a healthy safe, normal life. I feel really, really just lucky that I can just still do what I love and now have a way bigger meaning, and that’s to be her mother.” (That response came after she addressed criticism about her and her husband’s anniversary trip to Cuba.)
Given her own upbringing, it makes total sense. Though Beyoncé first broke out with Destiny’s Child at age 18, she officially began working at the age of eight as a member of Girl’s Tyme, which got its start gigging at Texas talent contests. It’s not mentioned a lot in interviews, but part of the strain of constant performing and reaching for that golden ring, lead to her parents temporarily separating when she was 14.
Surveying the landscape, things tend to not turn out so great for child stars. One has to guess the hazards are even greater for one who is a woman of color. And whatever degrees she may lack, Beyoncé has a lot of wisdom about not just how the entertainment industry works but how fame impacts people, especially young people. Because of how human psychology works, probably there is fair amount of temptation for her to do to her daughter what was done to her. So if anything she deserves props for nipping the cycle in the bud.
In the behind the scenes video for “Pretty Hurts,” which went live in May 2014, she sums up her thoughts on fame succinctly while explaining the video’s theme (again, she does speak to her people, just not through reporters), “I’m pretending to get a face lift and Botox. It represents all the things that women go through to keep up with the pressure that society puts on us. Some of the things young women go through, just, are really heartbreaking for me. When you get this trophy and you’re looking at it, is it worth it? That song represents finding the thing in the world that truly makes you happy.”
