Sufjan Stevens Wants You to Love Yourself, Shares New Essay

Sufjan Stevens champions self-love. That was evident in the singles he released to ring in Pride Month, and it’s even more clear in the new essay he’s shared on his website to celebrate Loving Day.

In the essay, Stevens waxes poetic on the fight between love and shame, arguing that the key to healthy relationships begins with discovering the love you have for yourself. Citing Jesus and RuPaul in equal measure, Stevens encourages his readers and fan-base to break the cycle of self-loathing and shame, finding the beauty in their existence:

This is our calling as well: to be human again. To have awareness without shame, we must undo everything the world has told us about our worth. We must go back to the beginning. We must be born again. We must be, and know, and love ourselves.

“Be beautiful. Be yourself.”

You can read the whole essay over here. While you’re here, you might as well revisit the similarly-themed singles Stevens released last month, too.