Katie Coleman is an incredibly talented young star. Not only does she have the skills to become an incredible artist in the music industry, but she’s got a strong head on her shoulders, and is willing to put important movements, such as the Time’s Up movement and awareness surrounding International Women’s Day, at the forefront of her work. With her passions for equality was born new song Not Your Pin Up Girl, the music video for which you can see below, before reading what Katie has to say about the track and why she wants to empower women and others everywhere.
-
Not Your Pin Up Girl is essentially about being yourself. It’s about unique individuality and being who you want to be, what you want to be and how you want to be.
The song is essentially a backlash, a reaction, against prescribed expectations on us that are everywhere around us – boy, girl, man, woman, straight, gay, old, young, or whatever. These expectations are just everywhere and really unstoppable and I believe do everything to reduce women to symbols or even objects. Social media is jam-packed with such portrayals that are so prevalent, young people – and I think especially women and myself included – feel so obliged to live up to them almost to the point that it can take over your life.
An important message of the song is that women should dress and wear make-up for themselves and nobody else. I say to people: when you’re dressing to look good, do it for yourself, as a form of self-empowerment! Work it! I find it unbelievable that even today, the way women dress can be linked to their promiscuity, own desires or availability – “asking for it”. Not Your Pin Up Girl is purely and simply a reaction to that way of thinking.
Today, International Women’s Day and in the future, I really hope young girls and women everywhere will at least consider the pressures put on them to live up to certain standards and free themselves of them! Don’t bow down to obligations in terms of image and expectations. That’s the true meaning behind my track.
Not Your Pin Up Girl is so right for now because these issues of sexism, body image, have never been more in the forefront of everyone’s minds. In terms of self-image, self-empowerment, personal freedom and personal choices, Not Your Pin Up Girl is the right song to encapsulate such individuality and self-expression – really everything I was thinking about when I wrote it! So let’s own it!