Nothing But A G Thang

A few years ago Becky G was creating YouTube covers of Jay Z and Ke$ha songs. Today, she's working with Will.i.am creating her own hits, doing commercials for Covergirl, throwing shade on Empire - essentially becoming the new Latina Millennial icon. When her debut album drops this year, Becky's transformation from next big thing to BFD will be complete.

- Smriti Mundhra

Chin cocked defiantly forward, an arm posed confidently over her head, Becky G plants herself before a mirrored wall rocking an animal-print blouse and skin-tight leather pants. Today, she looks like a blend of Cookie Lyon and Selena Gomez—in other words, not the spunky teen in overalls who graced Latina’s cover two years ago. At 19, Rebecca Marie Gomez seems self-assured and even beyond-her-years sultry as she works the camera until the photographer gives the thumbs-up, indicating he got the shot. Becky exhales. “I can’t believe people pay so much money to be this uncomfortable,” she blurts out to a room full of fashionistas. She catches herself. “I mean, it’s a really beautiful blouse."

Back at her parents’ house in Lawndale, Calif., a part of Greater Los Angeles that’s regularly described as “the ’hood,” we remind her of something she told us two years ago: “I always thought I’d be the first person to walk onto a red carpet and be asked what I was wearing, and I’d say, ‘Marshalls!’ ”

She laughs. “Oh my God, of course I said that,” she says with a roll of her eyes. But a look around her modest but beautiful home suggests that, indeed, not much has changed in the past couple of years. Becky didn’t pull a Kylie Jenner when she turned 18: She still lives with her family, her shoe collection favors sneakers over stilettos, and, as she says, “I’m still babysitting my siblings.”