I feel like I am a real artist and I want to be able to feel what

In the words of JoJo, the young songstress who rose to fame before her years had fully ripened, we hear not merely the voice of youth, but the cry of authenticity: “I feel like I am a real artist and I want to be able to feel what I am singing about. So when I sing, ‘Leave (Get Out),’ I have been through that. I think it is just a new generation, whether people are ready for it or not. Teenagers are dating.” These words, simple on the surface, contain the fire of a soul demanding to be seen not as a child of spectacle, but as a being of depth and experience. For within her declaration lies a timeless struggle — the battle between artifice and truth, between the expectations of the world and the authentic feeling of the heart.

From the beginning of time, true artists have sought not applause, but understanding. To feel what one sings about — this is the essence of art. It is the blood in the music, the breath in the sculpture, the tear behind the painted smile. JoJo, though young in years, spoke with the wisdom of those who came before her: that an artist must not merely perform emotion but live it, must not borrow pain but transform it. To sing of heartbreak, one must have tasted the bitterness of loss. To sing of defiance, one must have stood trembling before rejection. Her words are a testament to the sacred covenant between life and art — that suffering refines beauty, and truth is the soul of expression.

The ancients too understood this law. When Sappho of Lesbos wrote her verses of love and longing, she did not invent them from imagination alone. Her poems burned with the fire of experience — of loving deeply and losing utterly. Her art endured not because it was polished, but because it was true. Likewise, when JoJo sang “Leave (Get Out),” she was not pretending to feel the heartbreak of a teenage betrayal; she had lived it. And in her honesty, she gave voice to millions who had felt the same sting of rejection. Her youth did not diminish her truth — it magnified it, proving that emotion knows no age, and that sincerity transcends time.

But beyond her personal declaration lies a broader truth about generations and courage. “It is just a new generation, whether people are ready for it or not,” she said — and in that, we hear the eternal rhythm of renewal. Every age brings forth its own voice, and every young generation must fight to be heard above the judgments of those who came before. The elders may scoff, saying, “They are too young to know love,” just as they once were told the same. Yet love, pain, rebellion, and self-discovery are not the property of maturity — they are the birthright of being human. Each generation must sing its truth, for silence breeds conformity, and conformity suffocates the soul.

In her words also shines the sacred courage of self-definition. JoJo claimed her identity — not as an image crafted by the industry, but as a real artist. This claim is no small thing. For in a world that profits from illusion, to insist on authenticity is to wage war against the forces of pretense. Many have walked this path before her — Billie Holiday, whose pain turned into haunting melody; Nina Simone, who sang her soul against injustice; and JoJo, who as a young woman stood between innocence and selfhood, refusing to let others dictate what she was allowed to feel or express.

The lesson, then, is this: to be real is to be brave. Whether one is an artist, a student, a lover, or a wanderer upon the road of life, the challenge remains the same — to speak from the heart even when the world doubts you, to live your truth even when others call it premature. Authenticity is not granted; it is forged in the fire of experience and defended with the shield of self-respect. To “feel what you sing about” means to live awake, to participate fully in your own story, and to refuse the safety of masks.

Therefore, let this teaching be written upon the hearts of those who seek to create and to live meaningfully: Do not wait for permission to feel deeply. Do not shrink from your truth because others think you are too young, too old, or too different. The song of your life is yours alone to sing — and its power comes not from its perfection, but from its sincerity. Begin, as JoJo did, where you stand. Feel what you live, and live what you feel. For in the end, the world does not remember those who followed its rules, but those who dared to be real.

And so, JoJo’s words resound like a bell through the ages: Art is the mirror of the soul, and truth is its fire. May every heart that creates — in paint, in song, in word, or in love — learn to burn brightly with its own flame, and not with the borrowed light of another.