Victoria Monét ON MOM GUILT, COPARENTING & Manifesting Love

The woman once best known as a hitmaker for other musicians has stepped into her own light — and she’s shining bright as an artist and a mother

- by MARIEL TURNER

Victoria Monét is shedding guilt one page at a time. Like many working parents, the artist, 36, works hard to balance her career with parenting daughter Hazel, 4. Recently, she combined the two, authoring the children’s book Everywhere You Are, out June 24. “My mom guilt from working comes out,” Monét tells Us about the picture book, illustrated by Alea Marley, which is about separation anxiety. “I always need an outlet to be creative.... I'm in constant expression of what I'm going through.”

She's gone through a lot. Her 2023 album, Jaguar II, nabbed three Grammys — and made Monét the first Black woman to win for best engineered album. But the year saw change in her personal life as well, as Monét’s relationship with Hazel’s dad, John Gaines, came to an end. Now the singer is feeling more inspired than ever.

“I love to be open... [and] express what I’m experiencing,” she shares. “It allows for a lot of freedom.” Could this chapter include a new partner as well? “I'm definitely open to dating, but it has to be right,” says Monét, who came out as bisexual in 2018. She tells Us more about writing her book, the joys of motherhood and new music.

Did writing Everywhere You Are remind you of your own childhood?