R&B ingenue Elle Varner is part of a generation of singers to emerge over the past several years that embody a certain “every girl” relatability and passion, alongside fellow starlets like Melanie Fiona and Jazmine Sullivan. Her confessional songwriting and girl-next-door demeanor helped the Los Angeles native carve out her own niche, but as she preps the follow-up to her 2012 debut Perfectly Imperfect, she’s learning to embrace another facet of her image: her sex appeal.
Varner has rapidly become one of music’s most fawned-over starlets, and she admitted to RO that it’s something she’s growing into–but not something she was prepared for.
“It’s been a little bit of a bumpy ride,” Varner says. “But recently my posts on Instagram have been sexier and there’s a sexier element to this album. I’m growing up. I’m not gonna be shy and silly forever. Well–I may always be silly. But I know how to talk to a guy now and I know what’s up.”
“It’s not like I grew up that girl that every guy wanted, I was a late bloomer in that aspect,” she shares. “So it’s very weird. I still relate to myself as that fat teenager and yet I’m a size four. Size two sometimes! Just stuntin.’ [laughs] But for me it’s still weird. I’m starting to embrace it.”
Varner says that her new, sexy self-image is a byproduct of her having made the determination to take better care of herself.
“I think all of this happened for a reason–like my desire to educate myself on nutrition,” she says. ” I would’ve never thought in a million years that I was athletic. But I found that on my journey. I love working out and I love all this stuff.”
And the result of her focus has been a new confidence that radiates in everything that she does.
