Jennifer Lopez has been in show business for close to three decades. In that time, she has built a career as a dancer, actor, singer, and businesswoman. She has, undoubtedly, found success on her chosen path. Still, she said she was proud of herself for having survived for as long as she has.
Jennifer Lopez gives herself credit for surviving show business
Though Lopez has enjoyed years of success in show business, she admitted that she is only just starting to give herself credit for her success.
“I feel very proud that I’ve survived as long as I have in this business,” Lopez told Harper’s Bazaar in 2019. “At this point in my life, I’m trying to give myself more credit.”
Lopez said it was hard to ignore some of her critics. No matter what she has achieved, she said she will always remember the harsh things people have said about her.
“It’s hard when people are always telling you that you’re not good at things or saying, ‘Why is she successful?’” she said. “You get a lot of that when you’re a successful woman. You don’t get that as much when you’re a man. The thing about people, women especially, is that you can have 12 people telling you you’re amazing, but that one person kind of putting you down, that’s the voice that sticks in your head.”
She admitted she sometimes feels like a fraud
Lopez said that the weight of others’ opinions of her can sometimes be too much. She admitted she sometimes feels like a fraud.
“I think sometimes people try to make you feel like you’re a fraud,” she said. “And maybe you’re afraid you’re one too.”
She has to continually remind herself that she worked hard for what she has achieved.
“Then finally you go, ‘Wait, I’m not lying. I’ve been doing this a long time. This is not a mistake. I worked hard to be here.’ And you know what? Congratulations to myself,” she said. “Not in an arrogant way, by any means. It’s like, ‘You’re doing good, baby. Give yourself a break.’”
Jennifer Lopez said she doesn’t always feel that she fits in in show business
Though Lopez has been a mainstay in show business for years, she does not feel that she fits in with her peers. She admitted that she always feels like an outsider.
“I’ve always felt like an outsider, in the fashion world, the music world, the movie world,” she told Vogue in 2022. “I feel like everybody knows each other and all the artists talk, and you go to the Met ball and all the girls are hanging out together, and I’m not in that group. Maybe that’s just insecurity.”
As a result, she said she doesn’t typically network. She relies on hard work to move ahead.
“I’m not the kind of person who goes up to everybody at a party and says hi,” she told Harper’s Bazaar, adding, “I’m not a networker. I’ve always just kept my nose to the grindstone.”
Many of Lopez’s friends have described her as the hardest working person they know.
