Fade star Teyana Taylor is on the cover of People  and talking about how she got to be the star of Kanye West’s video, how she balances career and family and choosing not to give up on her dreams.



On being the star of Kanye's Fade video, Teyana feels she was chosen because of her family (fiance and basketball player Iman Shumpert and nine-month-old daughter June) and not because she was a dancer with  great body

"I honestly don't feel like 'Fade' would have had the same effect had I just been 21, hot body, single. Being signed to his label for four years, and Kanye being like a big brother to me, he's seen everything that I've been through. He was like, 'It's so dope because y'all so young and y'all fresh, but then y'all got the baby and the championship. I think that gave him the idea of wanting to see us all in the video together”


Taylor goes on to say that contrary to popular belief, having a child does not slow you down in anyway

"You can be superwoman. You can have it all, that balance in your relationship, your family and your career. It's the opposite of the cliché that says kids will slow you or your career down."


Being in the industry for years and not being as popular as some who came on the scene few years back has resulted in people asking 25-year-old Taylor to give up on her dreams

 "People would get up on me, like, 'You've been doing it for seven years now, you might as well give up… All you can do is keep shining. You can't say something and think my legs are going to stop, my voice is going to stop, my hunger is going to stop," she says. "I'll be hurt for five minutes, but I'm going to keep going hard."





To see more from her interview, visit People

Credits

Fashion assistants: Coco Campbell, Haylee Ahumada
Hair by Tomi Kono
Makeup by Ayami Nishimura
Nails by Lisa Logan
Digital Tech: Adrien Potier
1st Photographer Assistant: K Taro Hashimura
2nd Photographer Assistant: Ed Smith