Megan Rapinoe is as well-rounded as a soccer ball arching gloriously into a net. She’s a sports icon and formidable activist. She's one half of a lesbian power couple, and she has amazing hair. She can talk Epsom salts and equal pay in the same breath; her words can make you laugh as easily as they devastate misogynists. Among the many battles she’s taken on? Systematically, joyfully subverting the accepted definition of female beauty.
“We have such antiquated and strict traditional beauty norms,” she says. “Basically five people in the world look that way, and the rest of us are trying to chase this impossible thing! The power in finding your own beauty, I think, is transformational, especially for women.” This is not another famous person spouting feel-good language and then conforming to conventional beauty standards on the red carpet. Rapinoe’s public image—her short, dyed hair, her power poses, her playful mix of menswear and six-inch heels—deliberately insist on mainstreaming a type of beauty that has been considered, at best, alternative.
And it’s not a message Rapinoe is preaching from on high as much as learning from other women and trying to implement as best she can. “Oftentimes we look in the mirror and go to ‘This is bad, this is bad, this is bad’ instead of ‘How can you live through it, and grow with your face, and find some acceptance?’” she says. “Finding that sort of inner peace lets you go out into the world in a much more confident and chest-out sorta way.”
Rapinoe is currently serving as brand ambassador for a Shiseido’s Power of You campaign. She was struck by the campaign's focus on “finding your own relationship with beauty.” She also really, really loves Shiseido sunscreen. For another installment of Glamour's Big Beauty Questions, the athlete tells us about her commitment to baths, her feelings about the Paris Instagram filter, and why she’s jealous of Pete Davidson’s nails.
Glamour: What do you do to keep your hair in such great shape?
Megan Rapinoe: This thing gets wild. It’s up there. I can’t see it. Sometimes I just let it rip. It’s short, so the style kinda goes out quickly, and honestly, during the pandemic, it’s been difficult. I just sort of let it go. I try not to be like, “I have to get my hair done, or I’m not me.” Of course I’d like to have it done, but I try to look at it as a fun, expressive thing. And when it gets too crazy, I get to wear beanies and bucket hats.
What’s one beauty rule you swear by?
Sunscreen! I wear a lot of sunscreen, all the time, every day. I’ve been using the Shiseido sunscreens for a long time. I think they’re by far the best, especially for sports and being outdoors and sweating.
What’s one beauty rule you think is B.S.?
I certainly don’t moisturize my body enough. It’s such a big space! Sometimes I’m like: “It’s just too much!” When it comes to neck up, I’m quite disciplined; I go pretty hard-core. Also, I should probably do more masks—I think that would be really helpful but it’s just a lot sometimes.
If you could change one thing about beauty perceptions, either on social media or in Hollywood, what would that be?
I would change everything. There should be no norms. Everyone’s skin is different; everyone’s face shape is different. Instead of focusing on if you don’t have wrinkles in your skin or cheekbones are this and not that or your if your nose is this and not that, focus on what makes you feel best, finding products that match with your skin or give you that glow. There’s so much comparison happening that we forget to actually listen to ourselves about what makes us feel happy and beautiful. The comparison thing is just unrealistic. We see an Instagram photo and it’s like, “That has a Paris filter on it!” We know that. But then we look at our own faces and it doesn’t look perfect. And it’s like, “Yeah, cause I’m 36 and I’ve been around the sun! Of course I have wrinkles!” We see those things as not beautiful, and I want to change that.
You can use only three products for the rest of your life. What are they and why?
I’ve been in New York quite a bit over December, and if you’ve ever been there in winter, it sucks every ounce of moisture out of you. The Ultimune serum is just amazing for me. I glob it on. I don’t know how much you’re supposed to use—I’m dumping it on and putting it everywhere, it gives that thick, gooey feeling I want. That’s one of my favorite products right now. I put it on in the morning and at night. The Shiseido face wash for sure. With sweating and working out, sunscreen is just everywhere, it’s a constant battle to get it off and out of my pores, and a really good face wash can get it out. The night eye cream—that’s been a big area of focus. I glob it on and let sleep do its work. I’m traveling a lot, and schedules are all over the place, so I don’t always get all the sleep that I need. And then just being outside a lot, I’m squinting because of the sun, so reinforcing under the eyes is important for me.
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What’s your go-to getting ready music?
If we’re going out, I definitely like to get into some bops—some Drake or something like that to set the vibe, just to get a good little bounce goin’ in your step.
How much time do you spend getting ready?
As little time as I possibly can—I would say probably 30 minutes from out of the shower. I basically shaved my head a couple months ago, and that made everything really easy. It was amazing, I want to keep doing that for a while. Out of the shower it’s probably 10, 15 minutes of face stuff and prepping. If I wear makeup, it’s usually not a ton, just kind of accenting things. Getting dressed is a whole different story—sometimes that takes a long time.
I feel like I want to Kid Cudi my nails all the time, and I’m like—who has this kind of time? Who’s painting Pete Davidson’s nails? I want it, but I’m like, “I don’t have this kind of time!” What am I going to do? Paint them myself? No! It's a lot of work. It is what it is. If someone came over and knocked on my door and did it for me—but that’s not happening, so they’re fine.
What’s your favorite way to take a moment for yourself?
Take a bath, definitely. I use a lot of Epsom salts. My sister actually founded a CBD company and they have these beautiful bath salts, so getting in there and doing that, even if it’s just 15 or 20 minutes. I try not to bring my phone in—I know I’m going to drop it in the water some day. I just sit or read a book, or put a podcast on or some relaxing music. Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve been trying to find different ways—because oftentimes we can’t leave, so there’s only so much you can do—taking yourself to a different place is really healing. I don’t do any official practice of meditation or anything like that, but I feel like a bath is one way where you can get your body to a different place.
Do you have a signature scent?
I don’t know if it’s signature—it's signature for me! I wear Le Labo, the Santal 33. I’ve always struggled with perfumes. A lot of them are just…too perfume, too fragrance-y, too aggressive. The women's ones never resonated with me; neither did the men's. The men's did a little bit more, but I don’t want to be smelling like my little brother either.
This one is not a perfume; it’s a scent. I spray it around the house sometimes, I spray it in the entryway, I have the candle. It flows naturally. I feel like it works with my pheromones. I can wear a lot of it, I can wear a little of it, it’s kind of striking when you walk into a room. It's more like a feeling than a perfume.
Who are the women who inspire you the most right now?
Patrisse Cullors, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter. She’s gone through so much these last couple of years. Coming out on the other side of that, she’s such a beautiful human being, such a force. And Nikole Hannah Jones [the New York Times journalist behind The 1619 Project]. A lot of Black women, Black activists, Black freedom fighters—it’s just incredible what they’re up against, what they have to deal with on a daily basis, and the work that they do and the inspiration that they spread. I look to those two a lot—I can’t even imagine being a woman of that stature and being as incredible as they are and literally changing the world just by being who they are.
And I live with an inspiring woman—my fiancée, Sue [Bird, the WNBA star and five-time Olympic medalist]. You know, I try not to ever take for granted just getting to watch her up close every day, the struggles and the good times. I feel very lucky to be with someone that’s changing the world. Sometimes it’s like: She’s my partner, I know everything about her, we get up and have coffee, yada yada yada, all the normal stuff. But then when I really step back, it’s like, “Oh, wow! This is an incredible woman in history that I get to share my life with.”
Jenny Singer is a staff writer for Glamour. You can follow her on Twitter.
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