Chlöe Bailey talks about being labelled a ‘sex symbol’

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Gone are the days of Chlöe Bailey being a child star. Today, what you see is what you get, and that’s a grown woman. The singer-songwriter shed her good girl-next-door persona and transformed into a sex symbol, shaking the world with the sizzling 2021 single “Have Mercy.”

With the release of the sensual song “Surprise” in 2022 and her first album “The Last Man,” she seems to have upped the ante in terms of sexiness. In piecesin 2023. The evolution has been personal and authentic, even if some fans find it difficult to accept that she is no longer the teenager who sings covers of Beyoncé’s hits on YouTube with her sister Halle.

In a recent interview with Hot 97’s “Ebro in the Morning,” she admitted that there’s an intersection between longtime fans who have known her for over a decade and those who became aware of her when she flaunted her curves. Yet neither she nor Halle are trying to please one group or the other. “It works because we stay true to ourselves and we don’t try to create something that it’s not,” she told hosts Ebro Darden, Peter Rosenberg and Laura Stylez.

While Chlöe heated up the atmosphere, her younger sister was cast as Ariel in the live-action remake of The Little MermaidHer coming of age in the public eye led to roles in the ABC youth series “Grownish” and in the controversial Prime miniseries “Swarm”.

The latter sent social media users into an uproar when Chlöe and Damson Idris shared a brief sex scene within minutes of the first episode starting. Still, she shared, “It wasn’t a struggle to grow up, per se, it was a struggle to simply be heard,” amid the din of praise and backlash surrounding her transformation.

“I feel like the struggle of watching me grow up was more of an external thing from the audience’s perspective. I think I’ve just lived and my music will evolve… I’m just telling my story… it was never set up like I wanted to intentionally grow up,” the entertainer continued.

Last month, on August 9, she released her second project, Trouble in paradisewhose singles “Boy Bye” and “FYS” combine her R&B roots with her pop and rock ambitions. Still, she admitted that it will be a few years before her followers fully accept her adult status. And she’s OK with that.

“I’m not blind or stupid. I definitely feel like people like to put me in that box,” she said of being seen as a sex symbol. She added, “But you know, when you think about it, I’m 26. I’m four years away from 30, but I think because people grew up with my sister and I, it’s like they can’t see me as a little girl, so I guess that’s the way it is.”

Watch the full interview below.