Megan Thee Stallion helped many of us get through the pandemic. It’s not just her songs, like “Savage” and “WAP,” that have provided much-needed escapism during difficult days. It’s her triumphant hottie energy, her choice to bring every single willing person with her on the journey to feeling good. 

It’s this and so much more that makes her our 2021 Glamour Woman of the Year. “The bigger my platform gets, I start realizing that I’m not the only woman that goes through what I go through,” she told us. “I want to bring things to light so other women don’t feel like they have to continue to be silent.”

At the Glamour WOTY ceremony in New York on Monday, November 8, Megan was honored by hip hop’s Salt-N-Pepa. “Take her in,” Pepa said. “She is Thee Stallion. Beautiful, bold, assertive, fearless. I love everything that she’s doing.” When Salt-N-Pepa started, she said, “Everything was a struggle. There were so few women in the game back in the day. We helped open doors, yes we did. But Megan, she came and kicked the door down, pulled up a seat at the table, ordered a big dinner and poured Hottie Sauce all over the damn thing. She is doing it well, henny. Pushing it real good.” 

“Just 26 years old, Megan is young, talented and powerful, the pride of Houston,” Pepa said. “She’s a Grammy-award winning rapper, a Popeye’s franchise owner—I love that!—and as of this fall, a college graduate with a bachelor’s of science in health administration from Texas Southern.” Pepa went on, “Even while she was dealing with recent loss and trauma, she continues to spread a message of positivity and empowerment for women: young women like my daughter Egypt. Young girls, thicc girls, always taking the time to look and listen, to educate and give back in so many different ways.”

“Megan represents what I stand for,” she added. “So many people out there trying to shut us down, but she reminds us to love every inch of who we are, to stay true to ourselves, to know our worth and to go for it.”

Megan took the stage, to huge applause. “I’ve been in tears all night because everyone is so inspiring,” she said. True to her reputation, she began her speech by systematically thanking just about every woman who helped her get to where she is, from her stylist Zerina Akers to the journalist who wrote her profile in Glamour, Zandria Robinson. 

Then, in a deeply emotional moment, she spoke about her mom, Holly Thomas, who passed away in 2019.

“I also want to thank my mom, that’s my woman. [crying] I was doing so good! I want to thank my mom because she taught me how to be the woman that i am today, she’s my best friend, my manager, she was my everything and I know she’s so proud of me today. My Big Mama—my great grandmother—she was like, ‘Megan I don’t give a damn how many songs you write as long as you get that degree. So I was like, ’You know what? I don’t give a damn how many songs I write! I’m gonna stay in school because I know my Mama and my Big Mama watching me and that’s what they’d want me to do. 

Ufot added, “I’m supposed to be here. LaTosha Brown, Helen Butler, we’re supposed to be here.” She also astutely pointed out that we still live in a country where the “male, pale, stale minority fight with each other about which of our rights to take away.”  

Dr. Katalin Karikó’s daughter, Susan Francia, gave a sweet tribute to her mom. 

“I’m so honored to speak tonight on behalf of 2021 Glamour Woman of the Year Dr. Katalin Karikó, who I usually call Mom,” she said. “She has to be in Germany for work tonight, but you’ll have to excuse her for sending me instead, because the work she does saves lives. It was her lifelong efforts in RNA research that enabled Pfizer and Moderna to create the mRNA vaccine that is preventing the spread of COVID-19.” 

The first-ever Daring to Disrupt Award, presented by Ally, went to Peloton’s Robin Arzón. 

Pam Drucker Mann, Condé Nast’s global chief revenue officer and president of U.S. revenue, thanked all of the evening’s sponsors and welcomed soccer star Alex Morgan to the stage to present the Daring to Disrupt Award, presented by Ally, a Woman of the Year presenting sponsor.

“Robin has always been a strong leader, building Peloton and her personal brand to new heights,” Morgan said in her introduction of Arzón. “As an author, coach, mom, marathon runner, and top instructor, she inspires her fans to live happy and authentic lives. But by daring to share her joy and her challenges as a pregnant athlete and a powerful executive, she breaks new ground in women’s representation. Robin, and lots of us in sport, want the world to understand that true success is more than a medal or a corner office; it’s living a daring, big, and, bold life.” 

“I am absolutely astonished to be here in this room,” Arzón said. “I was raised by disruptors…. When we make waves, we’re going to make people uncomfortable. Disruptors and innovators are almost always misunderstood, questioned, and threatening. And I say, let’s make waves, and they’re just gonna have to learn how to swim.” 

The women behind Heart of Dinner’s moving remarks 

“The first time that I saw a video of an elderly man being attacked…the unmistakable agony on his face felt too painful to watch, it was unbearable. I saw the face of my father, my Ah Ma—that’s my grandma—and all of our grandparents. But instead of turning away from the pain, we stepped into it, knowing that we had each other’s love as our safety net,” Moonlynn Tsai and Yin Chang said in their acceptance speech. “In that love we birthed Heart of Dinner. It gave us hope to weather the most difficult terrain throughout the pandemic and enabled us to sustain. Our relationship expanded as we formed friendships with thousands who found their own safety net in our community.” 

Christopher Meloni tributing Woman of the year (and his Law & Order costar) Mariska Hargitay 

“Radiant. Charming. Funny. Embracing. Generous. Elegant. Honest. Appreciative. Inclusive. Direct. Vivacious. That’s my favorite one: vivacious,” he said. These two! 

And Hargitay’s speech

“The dictionary says that glamour is ‘an exciting and often illusory and romantic attractiveness,’ or in another dictionary, ‘an attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing,’” she said, “What’s the obvious implication? That glamour covers, that glamour is surface, and that the real is underneath. So I’d just like to say: No, I decide. Glamour isn’t surface…. Our glamour is something that lives and shines and breathes deep, deep in us…. You don’t tell us what our glamour means: We decide.” She also said some heartfelt words about her mother, Jayne Mansfield.

Pepa from Salt-N-Pepa introducing Megan Thee Stallion

“Look at Megan,” Pepa said. “Take her in. She is Thee Stallion. Beautiful, bold…fearless. I love everything that she’s doing. For me, coming up as Salt-N-Pepa, everything was a struggle. There were so few women in the game back in the day. We helped open doors, yes we did. But Megan kicked the door down, pulled up a seat at the table, ordered a big dinner, and poured Hottie Sauce all over the damn thing.” 

Megan’s speech, naturally, was incredible too. 

The rapper got emotional talking about her mother, saying, “She taught me how to be the woman I am today.

Moonlynn Tsai and Yin Chang just wanted to keep Asian elders safe. Near the beginning of the pandemic, during a surge of violent, racist attacks, they launched Heart of Dinner, an organization that brings hot, beautifully prepared meals to older members of the Asian community in New York City’s Chinatown. Their project, the couple says, was “born out of despair.” But by treating their neighbors with deep empathy and care, they nourished a sense of hope. 

At the Glamour Women of the Year Awards held on November 8, fashion designer Prabal Gurung passionately welcomed the Heart of Dinner founders. Citing the over 10,000 hate incidents against Asians in the U.S. reported by Stop AAPI Hate since the pandemic began, he said, “These wounds to our community are not new; they’ve always been there.” Asian-Americans, he noted, “are the fastest growing racial or ethnic group in the U.S. electorate, but somehow we’ve always been rendered insignificant or invisible.” He added, “That’s why I feel we can never be too bold or too loud in our fight for safety, inclusivity and acceptance.” For Tsai and Chang, he said, “their activism is powered by love.” 

Tsai and Chang accepted their award with an emotional speech. “The first time that I saw a video of an elderly man being attacked, the unmistakable agony on his face felt too painful to watch, it was unbearable,” said Chang. “I saw the face of my father, my Ah Ma—that’s my grandma—and all of our grandparents. But instead of turning away from the pain, we stepped into it, knowing that we had each other’s love as our safety net.”

Tsai went on, “In that love we birthed Heart of Dinner. It gave us hope to weather the most difficult terrain throughout the pandemic and enabled us to sustain. Our relationship expanded as we formed friendships with thousands who found their own safety net in our community.” Their work, she said, isn’t only about delivering food: “Our elderly recipients get to see how much love and inclusivity there is in this community, which helps the isolating and terrifying news about targeted attacks towards them.” 

“Together,” Chang elaborated, “we are able to shine light on the good in the world, as we see that people are innately drawn towards acts of love. These loving acts can change a life—and yours too. So don’t be afraid to challenge the pain, as that is where we often find a flicker of hope. When we are able to confront despair with unwavering conviction and integrity, we replace it with the beautiful and the good.” 

Tsai and Chang ended their Women of the Year speech by thanking their mothers for teaching them empathy. It feels safe to say that empathy is a lesson that both women truly internalized. They call Heart of Dinner’s product “empathy, wrapped up in a thoughtful care package.”

The Glamour Woman of the Year Awards ceremony was held in compliance with local health and safety guidelines. 

Following the 2020 election, Stacey Abrams was compared to George Washington. To Moses. To God. Abrams is widely credited for organizing Georgia voters and getting out the vote, in spite of immense voter suppression that targets people of color. Thanks to her, pundits agreed, a state that hadn’t gone for the Democratic Party since 1992 helped hand Joe Biden the presidency and elevated two Democrats to the senate. The voice of the people of Georgia was heard at full volume, across the nation.

But Abrams made this clear: She did not do it alone. She was not a solitary hero. She did it, primarily, with Black women leaders. And their names are not to be erased.

At the Glamour Women of the Year Awards held on November 8, Stacey Abrams honored some of the Georgia women responsible for activating true democracy in the 2020 election: LaTosha Brown, cofounder of Black Voters Matter Fund; Helen Butler, the executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda; and Nsé Ufot, CEO of The New Georgia Project. These women, Abrams told the Women of the Year audience via video message, “helped build the infrastructure in Georgia that made the dream of flipping the state a reality.” Abrams credited Brown, Butler, Ufot, and their respective organizations with helping lead voters not from apathy, but from despair. “The work these women have led is critical because it showed Georgians that their votes are directly connected to the progress we want to see,” she said.

Brown kicked off the speeches, singing “This Little Light of Mine.” “We believe in something great and something better, but who can make it happen? Black people, and Black women; we get stuff done,” she said. 

“I would like to thank Glamour magazine for honoring, recognizing, and recording the work of women of color, especially Black women, who have for decades been working to fulfill the American dream of democracy for all as highlighted by the Statue of Liberty: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, and those yearning to be free,’” Butler said. 

Ufot added, “I’m supposed to be here. LaTosha Brown, Helen Butler, we’re supposed to be here.” She also astutely pointed out that we still live in a country where the “male, pale, stale minority fight with each other about which of our rights to take away.”  

Jenny Singer is a staff writer for Glamour. You can follow her on Twitter. 

The Glamour Woman of the Year Awards ceremony was held in compliance with local health and safety guidelines.

Amanda Gorman has had an incredible year. The 23-year-old first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate read poems at both President Joe Biden’s inauguration and the Super Bowl, stunned at the Met gala, and, now is one of Glamour’s 2021 Women of the Year. “Don’t dream to be the next Amanda Gorman. Dream to be the first you,” Gorman said in her WOTY interview. “We need new, diverse, different voices, and the world isn’t served if people imitate me. The more that we have people who are excellent at doing what they do, I think the brighter and bolder we’ll all be for it.” 

At the Women of the Year Awards, held on Monday, November 8, Gorman was honored with her award by ballerina Misty Copeland. “When I was just 16, I saw a Black ballerina on the cover of a magazine, and it changed the course of my life. Because I could see it, I believed that I could be it,” Copeland said in her introduction. “On January 20th of this year, when Kamala Harris took the oath of office, I pictured all kinds of women watching her and believing that we could shift from inequality to justice. And when I heard Amanda Gorman recite her poem ‘The Hill We Climb,’ I imagined all of the aspiring girls of color who saw themselves in her, and visualized their own potential.”

Copeland continued, “Amanda ushered in a new era of American letters that day. Through her epic Super Bowl performance, best-selling books, and influential social media presence, she shines optimism, patriotism, and light, and reminds us all that our voices and our words have the power to change the world.” 

Amanda Gorman couldn’t attend the 2021 Glamour Women of the Year Awards in person, but she wrote an incredible speech for the occasion. Read it in full, below:

“Thank you, everyone! I so wish I could be with you in person tonight–not only with the phenomenal honorees but the remarkable guests in the room. I want to give a huge thank you to Glamour for this award, and also for supporting me throughout the years. In 2018 I was named a Glamour College Woman of the Year, and I still remember being so excited to attend the Women of the Year Awards as an audience member. Little did I know that three years later, I’d come back as an honoree, and in the midst of a global pandemic. 

“The issues that we see planet-wide just upped the stakes of fighting for gender equity and justice around the world. So tonight, I’m sharing my poem ‘Miracle of Morning’ because while I’m being honored, I in turn want to honor the incredible and necessary work that is being done on the front lines of the pandemic, especially by women. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 76% of full-time health-care jobs are held by females. Our lives are literally in their hands. That is to say—if the future is female, then the world’s wellness dwells in women. 

“The problems that we see around the globe are also interconnected, which also means that by uplifting women, we raise up us all. And so I hope that you can join in our cresting wave, using whatever instrument you have at hand, whether that be your intelligence, your ferocity, your voice, your heart. 

“I wrote these words three years ago as a College Woman of the Year, and they still ring true:

Time and time again we’re shining, finding 

That the glow of one woman is beautiful

But together our glamour is blinding.

“Thank you.” 

The Glamour Woman of the Year Awards ceremony was held in compliance with local health and safety guidelines.

Kerry: “Addicted”—love it. There are worse things to be addicted to than democracy building. Miss LaTosha Brown, how about you? Your aha moment.

LaTosha Brown: It’s interesting. I am sitting here thinking about the question, and I don’t know if I have an answer of an aha moment in the sense that I think there have been several moments. I was led to the work because I love human beings. There’s been two things that have shaped who I am—this deep love for life and people, and then this keen sense of injustice. I never liked to see people use power against people who were powerless,

I keep telling people that my work is not about elections. It’s about, How are we going to restore or reclaim our humanity? And for me, voting is an expression of that. Every single human being should have a right to have some input on decisions made about their lives, and so I fundamentally believe that to the core of my being. I want the world to be better.

Kerry: You’re not going to have me crying today.

Nsé: I love it.

Kerry: Nsé, what about you?

Nsé: Like LaTosha, I feel like I was always a precocious kid that felt things very deeply and had a strong sense of “This is not right.” I didn’t know if I could do anything about it, but you going to hear me say something because I don’t like what I’m seeing!

Listen, I’m an immigrant kid from a working-class family; [the daughter of] a single parent from Nigeria. They don’t play any kind of games. My junior year of college, I got my first D in organic chemistry, and I was pre-med. I was like, “All right, so I’m about to be murdered.” I didn’t feel like I had a lot of career options, but the truth was I did. It was the summer of 2001. I had pledged a sorority. I had got a little boyfriend. And I had hustled an internship at CNN for the summer. [The network was] covering the World Conference Against Racism, and so I spent the summer in Durban, South Africa. I met so many lawyers who did not practice law. There were communicators, there were fundraisers, there were graphic designers. It felt like, “Oh, this might be something that I could do where I could satisfy my family, but also get paid or figure out a way to feed myself to do the work that I care about deeply; the democracy work that I care about, the justice work that I care about.”

These volunteers are motivated by history and culture, by a need to serve those too long ignored by our society. This is personal work. For Nancy Pappas, the first designer of Heart of Dinner’s logo and website, her identity as a Korean American adoptee without a strong link to her history is what motivated her to join. Through Heart of Dinner, she’s found a deep connection, and she looks up to Moonlynn and Yin as role models. “It’s a very homey community; it’s a family-based space,” Nancy says.

Andrew Teoh, who has designed tote bags for Heart of Dinner, agrees: “When I first heard about the initiative, I immediately thought about my parents. I thought about the elderly who are too scared to go out because of COVID and xenophobic attacks.” Now, he says, “Heart of Dinner means community to me. And, also, family.”

What makes Heart of Dinner so special—so urgent and necessary and sustaining—is this shared understanding of family as something greater than blood ties and households and much more than a simple relationship of obligation. More than feeding the vulnerable, Moonlynn and Yin’s organization is about respect. Yin shares an anecdote of one family that bonded over decorating Heart of Dinner bags early last year, when three generations were confined inside an apartment together. Months later, when the matriarch was brutally attacked, her daughter was surprised to hear her bring up Heart of Dinner. “I’m now one of those victims they care for,” she said. “Thank God for them.” Moonlynn recounts reading about an older man who was attacked with a box cutter, and how desperately they searched for his identity so that they could offer assistance. As they were about to give up, the victim’s neighbors reached out to ask for Heart of Dinner’s help. “We had chills. His friends were like angels,” Yin says. The man, fully recovered, receives weekly packages now, addressed with his affectionate moniker of Big Brother in his native tongue. Yin shakes her head: “We were trying to find you.”

There’s an aura of kismet that hangs around all of Heart of Dinner’s work, and at its center is Moonlynn and Yin’s relationship. They are a rare couple—magnetic, sincere leaders who make things happen. While Moonlynn is taller and quieter, and Yin is chatty and quick to smile, they are both deeply empathetic and thoughtful. As two people in the creative sphere with unpredictable schedules, they have cultivated flexibility, and the boundaries between their work have blurred. Moonlynn helps Yin with her podcast, and Yin has buoyed Moonlynn through the ups and downs of restaurant life. Jacqueline Russo Eng, of Partybus Bakeshop, says, “It’s not often you meet people like those two. Everything that they do, they put 1,000% into, and they genuinely want to. They’re not doing anything out of obligation ever. It’s refreshing.”

Moonlynn believes their ability to adapt to new challenges and form community wherever they go stems from their genesis as a couple—they fell for each other at Burning Man. “It felt like my soul was set ablaze,” Yin says, grinning at Moonlynn. “I think something about falling for somebody in a place where there’s no boundaries, no labels, no nothing—that’s how our entire core and foundation of our relationship has been. That’s just how we do things, and maybe people pick up on it too.” With Heart of Dinner, after seven years of dating, they have finally been able to create something together as equal partners.

She calls it the frozen place—the tightening that happens as a result of trauma, whether it’s sexual assault, domestic violence, or losing a parent. “I clearly was in that frozen place for a lot of my childhood—of trying to survive, actually trying to survive,” she says. “My life has been a process of unpeeling the layers and trust and trusting again.”

The origin stories of Joyful Heart and I Am Evidence both come back to that idea of the frozen place. As soon as the first episodes of Law & Order: SVU began airing in 1999, she got letters from strangers—hundreds, then thousands—about sexual trauma. The intense fandom of the show is at least in part because of the alternate universe it presents, where victims are not just heard and seen, but triumph. It’s an alluring and cathartic premise, and perhaps why people are so obsessed with the show, even though a pair of white police officers aren’t the most likely American heroes in this age. So many of the sentiments Hargitay heard in letters were the same: “I feel alone,” “I have shame.” Hargitay saw the misplacement, how survivors had taken on “all these things that didn’t belong with them, that belonged with the perpetrator.”

“I went, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,’” she remembers. “Joyful Heart was my response. That’s what the foundation has been about—giving back possibility.” She comes back to her preferred metaphor. When something is frozen, “light doesn’t get in.” She launched the foundation to guide people out of those stuck, numb places, to lead them toward hope.

The role suits her. She is a natural leader both on set and at the foundation. She is less adept at being led herself. When Hargitay was 10, she was hit by a car in New York while crossing the street, and she broke her femur. Her father was doing a show, but he was ready to drop all his commitments to rush to be by her side. “And I was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m fine. I’m in the hospital, I’m going to be okay,’” she says. “My husband laughs, because everyone that knows me says that I say, ‘You don’t tell me. I decide.’ That’s kind of my shtick.”

孟伶和英华联系到的餐厅都非常积极，在不同时期参与行动爱心餐行动。其中，Saigon Social、Bessou 和 Partybus Bakeshop 这三家全是由女性主导的生意自始至终从未间断与“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”的合作。

越南家常餐厅 Saigon Social 的老板兼主厨 Helen Nguyen 在“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”找到了避风港。她的餐厅原定于 2020 年 3 月开业。随着疫情蔓延，开业计划只能无限期搁置。在漂泊和伤心之际，她通过“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”找到了新的目标。现在，Helen 专心创作营养佳肴，还会根据反馈不断改进食谱。

新式日本家常餐厅 Bessou 的老板 Maiko Kyogoku 则认为，加入“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”能够传达她作为餐饮人的价值。“食物应当为人带来慰藉，” Maiko 解释道。她与行政总厨 Emily Yuen 为了实现“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”的使命而策划出许多菜式，包括麻婆豆腐、鲜虾粥和西红柿炒鸡蛋。

谈及“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”的影响时，Emily 潸然泪下。“这是我与父母联系、一同烹饪的方式之一。自从新冠大流行以来，我就没有见过他们，”她说道，“在中国文化中，烹饪是一种表达爱的方式。所以做爱心餐在某种程度上是我用爱报答自己家人。”

家的理念渗透到“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”的方方面面。否则，如何将数千人凝聚在每周一次的任务中？“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”的志愿者是全职律师、教师、艺术家和大学生。他们的日子也不容易，却为参与行动而不惜牺牲节假日、无惧风雨。世界各地的人也写信来鼓励。数百个志愿者负责手绘送餐袋。每个星期二，电话员联系受助者，跟他们确认信息。核心运营团队由 25 人组成，确保送餐数量和地址无误。打包的方式就跟层层叠积木一样精确——底部是热餐，然后逐层垒上一瓶豆浆、苦瓜、南瓜、橙子、 苹果、五香豆腐、大白菜、芹菜、香葱包、鸡蛋、非营利组织 Soar Over Hate 捐赠的警报钥匙链，最上方是免洗洗手液。

志愿者的动力来自历史和文化，他们认同那些长期受社会忽视的人群需要得到照顾。他们的行动发自内心。作为“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”标志和网站的第一位设计师，Nancy Pappas 参与的原因是她通过收养来到美国，对出生地韩国缺少密切联系。通过“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”，她找到了很深的联系，并以孟伶和英华为榜样。“这是一个非常温馨的团体，如同家一般的存在，”Nancy 表示。

为“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”设计手提袋的 Andrew Teoh 也认同：“当我第一次听说这个倡议时，我立刻想到自己的父母。我还想到那些因为新冠和仇外袭击而不敢出门的老人。现在，‘Heart of Dinner 爱心餐’就是我的社区和家人。”

“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”既是社会的迫切之需，也做到了持之以恒——如此与众不同的原因是成员对“家”的共识：它高于血缘关系和一般概念的家庭，而不是单纯的义务关系。“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”不仅是在为弱势群体提供食物援助，追求的是尊重。英华分享了一家人的故事。去年年初，那家的三代人因为封城而困在公寓里，便全家人一起为“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”的打包袋画装饰。几个月后，他们家的老太太惨遭袭击，女儿居然听到她提起了“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”：“我现在也成了他们的关怀对象。感谢老天爷，还好有他们。”孟伶也说起了另一位老人被人用美工刀袭击。她们从新闻了解到事件之后拼命寻找老人，希望可以伸出援手。正当遍寻无果要放弃之时，老人的邻居主动联系，请求“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”帮忙。“我们一直在找您呢！”英华感叹道，“都快死心了。他的朋友就像天使一样。”老人后来痊愈了，现在每周都会收到爱心餐，便条上的留言亲切地用老人的母语称他为“大哥”。

在“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”的使命光环之下，核心是孟伶和英华的关系。她们不是普通的情侣，她们是有行动力、有魅力、真诚的领导者。孟伶高挑文静，英华健谈爱笑，两人都那么善解人意，体贴周到。她们都从事创意，没有固定的日程；于是培养出灵活处事的习惯，工作起来也不分彼此。孟伶帮助英华打理播客；孟伶的餐厅遇到不顺，英华也会在旁鼓劲。Partybus Bakeshop 的老板 Jacqueline Russo Eng 表示：“像她们这样的人很少见，做任何事都全情投入，而且是真心付出。她们从不因为义务才去做事，真是一股清流。”

孟伶相信她们能够应对任何新挑战、四处结缘是从成为情侣开始。她们在“火人祭”期间擦出火花。“感觉就像我的灵魂被点燃了，”英华说着，对孟伶咧嘴一笑：“在一个没有界限、标签的荒芜之地爱上一个人，那样的感觉成为了我们关系的全部内在和基础。这就是我们行事方式，也许大家也注意到了。”恋爱七年之后，她们有了平等伴侣之间共同创造的成果—Heart of Dinner 爱心餐。

当然，她们很快地补充道，并不是事事都那么顺利。在爱上孟伶之前，英华并不知道自己喜欢女人；孟伶之前的关系从不曾对外公开。为了彼此，她们向家人表明一切。英华认为，决定告诉家人并不难，难在鼓起勇气。她们都亲身经历过对性少数、亚裔、女性的歧视—有时甚至是三种歧视一起来。有时候，她们也有压力，只能展现“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”和关系中的美好一面。作为榜样，肩上的担子可不轻巧。

她们甚至想过，自己服务的社群是否会接受她们的同性关系。孟伶特别担心地问英华，受助者知道之后，会不会连急需的食物救济都不要了。而两人中更外向、直接的英华决定要试试才知道。她们将自己做过的一次访谈用中文打印下来，装进之后一次的爱心餐中。英华解释道，她的信心来自于她知道自己已经在社群中找到了安全感，不管大家的反应如何。她觉得受助者会说：“无论如何我们都会爱你。”第二天，她们接到一位老太太的电话，称赞她们的行动和关系。孟伶非常珍惜这次经历：“我觉得自己得到重视，太治愈了。”

截至 2021 年 9 月，“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”送出的爱心餐超过 8.5 万份。她们正在招揽新的合作伙伴，希望在 11 月之前完成送餐 10 万分的目标。尽管机构是在新冠大流行中诞生，但孟伶和英华并不打算终止项目，即便是将来疫情完全结束。“经历了一场大流行，我们才意识到食物短缺是长期存在的社区问题，在 65 岁以上的亚裔群体尤为严重，”英华解释道，“我们还要做下去，只要能坚持住。”

自从登上了 Humans of New York、AAPI Voices Summit、O: The Oprah Magazine 等平台，孟伶和英华收到了许多合作邀请和扩展提议。然而，对于机构的发展，她们相当谨慎。“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”的使命是重塑受助群体的尊严。不仅仅是做慈善、口头承诺，更不是企业在亚太裔传统月用来装点门面的横幅。一定要把英华所说的“妈妈店感觉”延续下去。“我们要展现更多的诚意……”孟伶开了话头，英华接下话，“……继续赢得长辈对我们的信任。”

坐在餐桌旁的孟伶和英华穿着灰色情侣衬衫，心有灵犀地回答了最后一个问题。“Heart of Dinner 爱心餐”经过一年半的发展，影响力许多人的生活，它现在对你们有什么意味？英华首先答道：“它意味着希望，让人再次相信人性，相信好人、好念头、好社区的存在，相信善。”

Crystal Hana Kim 著有书作《If You Leave Me》。该书获得十多家出版社评为 2018 年最佳图书。更多关于她的小说和作品详见 Crystalhanakim.com。

Group photo of Heart of Dinner volunteers and restaurant partners from left: Maiko Kyogoku, Remi Kyogoku Cruz, Jacqueline Russo Eng, Moonlynn Tsai, Yin Chang, Nancy Pappas, Andrew Young, Emily Yuen, Lillie Sloan, Helen Nguyen, Vivian Chen, Andrew Teoh.

Photographed by Michelle Watt; styled by Kimberly Nguyen; hair by Taichi Saito; makeup by Christyna Kay; set design by Selena Liu. Additional photography by Charlie Owens.

Two decades later, most every rapper globally wants to be, sample, or sound Southern, and a Southern cadence or beat might be as likely to come from a rapper from Queens or Compton as one from Memphis or Atlanta. As a result of the undeniable popularity of the South, Gangsta Boo says, the field is more open, and she’s inspired and motivated by this new generation of Southern women hip-hop artists: “I love the dancing that they’re doing, I love the business moves that they’re making, and it’s cool to see. They’re having a damn good time.”

Too good to be contained. Listeners have come to know Megan as well as her cast of alter egos. There’s Tina Snow, Megan’s signature mirror-image of the late rapper Pimp C of UGK. There is Hot Girl Meg, of course.

And there is Suga, from the 2020 album of the same name. “When I’m Suga, that’s me when I’m ready to be a little bit more vulnerable and more open,” Megan says. “It’s very hard for me to be vulnerable sometimes; it’s very hard for me to be open sometimes, especially in my music. I do try to keep my private things private. But being in the light, it’s hard to be so private. So I’m like, ‘Okay, since y’all think y’all know my business half the time, let me tell you from the source, let me tell you from the horse’s mouth.’” And she has indeed told us straight from the Stallion’s mouth. In October she celebrated her one-year anniversary with boyfriend Pardison Fontaine, whom she confirmed she was dating in an Instagram Live.

For all of their quantity and range, Tina Snow, Hot Girl Meg, and Suga cannot collectively hold Megan’s creative capacity or tell the fullest and truest version of the artist’s story. Even Beyoncé had to kill off Sasha Fierce. And for all the possibilities of the form, especially in Megan’s care, rap can’t contain her. Her next project—much teased—fuses her multiple archetypes to speak her truths, even more sharply and definitively. Beyond music, she is returning to her readerly and writerly roots, lending her distinct voice and perspective to film and TV.

Moreover, lurking beneath all these archetypes in her music—but more plainly evident in her visual lexicon—is an unnamed Horror Girl Meg, a rap Beloved, skulking about the lower frequencies, interested in the pain, the rage, and what is owed Black women in a world that perpetually harms and disrespects them. Her videos contain references to Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Alice in Wonderland. She’s a fan of Stephen King. “I like to be in suspense. I like to be scared. I like creepy stuff,” she says. She has produced Megan Thee Stallion in Hottieween, a YouTube series in which she starred as a P.I. protecting women from vampire “fuccbois.”

Some horror is lived. During her summer 2020 Tidal concert, the stage went dark as the names of Black people killed by police appeared onscreen. At one point during her fall 2020 SNL performance, the movement stopped and the geometric black-and-white background was punctured with gunshots. Splotches of blood rained down. The audience heard the voices of Malcolm X and the activist Tamika D. Mallory. The next week she followed up the performance with an opinion piece in The New York Times, in which she called for an end to violence against Black women.