Music

Princess Nokia’s “Young Girls” Video Honors Urban Feminism Rooted in Ritual

In Princess Nokia’s latest video for “Young Girls,” she builds on the concept of utopian urban feminism that was the baseline of her #SmartGirlsClub sleepover in the “Nokia” video. The track, off 2014’s Metallic Butterfly, pays tribute to sisterhood rooted in spirituality, in a heartfelt tribute to motherhood.

For the video premiere, Nokia is quoted as saying, “People look down on teen moms and young mothers when they are the most gracious and significant women on this Earth. They sacrifice their freedom and their lives to give life. I don’t think people realize what they have to go through—the shaming our society puts on them. I mean, we’ve been having children as teenagers since the beginning of time.”

As an artist drawing from an amalgamation of areíto rituals and depictions of a futuristic, urban experience, she went on to say, “The imagery in the video are visions of me in different parts of my life and the traditions I’ve carried into my adult life, whether it’s my nature, spirituality, or the identification of being a natural witch.”