Jennifer Lopez might be an award-winning musician, performer, actress and recent beauty mogul, but she will always be Jenny from the Block now, and forever.
While accepting an award for Pop Culture Innovatory from WSJ. Magazine’s Innovator Awards on November 13, Lopez spoke candidly about her upbringing in the Bronx, New York and how her childhood is the reason for her incredibly successful career.
“Growing up in the Bronx really did shape me because I grew up with not a lot,” Lopez said, per E! News. “Everything about me, my kind of grit, I’ve never thought about it or described it this way before, but it is the heartbeat inside of me that is the Bronx and my upbringing that continues to drive me.”
During her virtual acceptance speech on Instagram, Lopez also reflected on her decades-long career and how, as a Latinx performer, she’s broken barriers by successfully conquered the film, music, fashion, and beauty industries.
“From very young, I never wanted to be put in a box. I wanted to be smart, and athletic, and sweet, and tough and a tomboy but also very glam. That’s why I became an actress and a performer because you get to be a lot of different things,” recalled Lopez.
“When I first came on the scene, I wasn’t trying to be the size zero model or say I wasn’t Latin and change my name. I was Jennifer Lopez. I had a big butt. I embraced that. But I didn’t want to just be the Latin actress or the one who played those types of roles. I wanted to do different roles.”
Aside from her critically acclaimed films and her illustruous music career, the musician assured her fans that she has not plans on slowing down just yet.
“I love movies and the pretend and the make-believe and the fantasy of what the world could be,” said the performer. “And until the world is 100 percent perfect and completely fixed, I won’t ever be done.”
Currently, Lopez is in production for her 2021 film Marry Me, where she stars alongside Owen Wilson and latin singer Maluma. The film follows Lopez’s character, Kat Valdez, who learns of her husband’s infidelity mere moments before walking down the aisle, forcing her to impulsively marry a random audience member, Charlie Gilbert (Wilson), instead.
