good taste

Solange Is Proof Nobody Escapes the Incubus Phase

Solange is president of the Fiona Apple Fanclub. Photo: 2017 Getty Images

In the new issue of Teen Vogue, Very Cool Adult Solange Knowles wrote a moving letter to Teenage Solange Knowles. Unlike the letters you might want to write to your teenage self, Solange’s letter was a poetic, inspiring rumination on first loves and trust and self-acceptance and gratitude and pain and growth and did not contain a single reference to how decades later Caroline would still be boyfriend-stealing life-ruiner.

Before you think Solange transcends any sort of normal teen experience, however, please note that she too had a deep, emotional attachment to Fiona Apple and a mysterious sexual attraction to the dirty hot Incubus lead singer, Brandon Boyd. She writes:

you will dive head first without looking into phases that you are certain of who you are. some of these stages include:
the dance-is-life (aka “this leotard is my second skin”) phase.
the Bible-thumping-church-camp phase
(which coincided and contradicted with the Fiona-Apple-fan-club-president phase).
the Nas-aficionado-brown-lip-liner-and-Vaseline phase.
the Rasta-vegan-thrifter-who-is-determined-to-marry-Brandon-Boyd phase.
the football-player’s-girlfriend-who-wears-braided-blond-highlights-and-swears-by-capri-pants phase.

There are a few universal truths that even the coolest adults can’t escape: You will embrace at least one unflattering pant trend, there is at least one journal entry that could ruin your life if ever made available to a public audience, and at one point, you very angrily sang along to “Criminal” when your mom wouldn’t drive you an hour to see Incubus perform at Busch Gardens.

Solange Is Proof Nobody Escapes an Incubus Phase