Megan Thee Stallion, née Megan Pete, is ready for reinvention. Earlier this year, the Houston native turned 30, sharing a Saturn return–themed photo shoot on Instagram complete with cosmic glam, dark-goddess energy, and a nod to the transformation the rapper has gone through over the last few years. If you’ve talked to any of your woo-woo friends (or survived your own astrology spiral), you already know that your Saturn return is a period often defined by the self-reflection, growth, and coming-of-age challenges taking hold of you between the ages of 27 and 30. For many in the music business, it’s a source of album inspiration. The ruling planet is often called life’s greatest teacher, full of tough love and karmic lessons. For Pete, that lesson seems to be about power—how to protect it, wield it, and evolve with it.
And evolve she has. The woman we met during her “Hot Girl Summer” breakout in 2019 isn’t gone, but she’s grown. She’s sharper and softer in the right places. Pete is less concerned with proving her worth and more focused on embodying it. Her third album, Megan, isn’t just a victory lap—it’s a statement, one that says, “I’ve done the work, I’ve taken the hits, and I’m still standing stronger, smarter, and shinier than ever.”
“Everything that I do, I do it because it’s my own choice,” Pete affirms during our conversation on a Saturday afternoon. “I am my own person. I am a person, a human being, and I’m just it. I don’t need anybody else to tell me if I’m the shit or not.”
The last five years have been a whirlwind for the rapper. Since turning 25, Pete has won three Grammy Awards, founded her own independent record label, graduated from Texas Southern University with a Bachelor of Science in health administration, and shaken up the internet with her food review at the 2025 Met Gala. (Before you ask, she confirms she’s not banned from the event, even though she did break its “no phones” rule.) Pete has embarked on numerous tours—the most recent being her global Hot Girl Summer Tour, a 36-stop flex across North America and Europe—and had a viral Coachella 2025 performance, where she surprised the crowd with Queen Latifah and Ciara. Not to mention the countless red carpets, music videos, and string of celebrated singles alongside Cardi B, Beyoncé, and Ariana Grande. Megan Thee Stallion has the kind of résumé most artists spend their entire careers chasing, and she’s just getting warmed up.
She’s done it all and then some while navigating unimaginable personal loss, relentless public scrutiny, and headlines no 20-something should have to endure in real time. Now, at 30, Pete’s not chasing moments. She’s building a legacy. The rapper has conquered music (her first single of the year, “Whenever,” is out now), fashion, and now tequila with her latest brand venture, Chicas Divertidas (a cheeky Spanish translation of “fun girls”). On the horizon? Her very own swimwear line, fittingly titled Hot Girl Summer. Could there be a better name? Probably not.
(Image credit: Future)
“As the creator of Hot Girl Summer, I curate the vibes of the summer. … [It’s] how I like to party and how I like to turn up. I wanted to expand beyond just vibes in a going-out sense, and I wanted to have a uniform for that,” Pete explains of her choice to venture into swimwear. The line—launched in collaboration with Walmart—offers 18 head-turning, beach-ready pieces, each dripping in confidence and high-octane glamour. Think fringe-trimmed bikinis, gold-foiled one-pieces, and sultry snakeskin corsets that glide seamlessly from sun-soaked afternoons to late-night functions. The pieces practically ooze sex appeal and an undeniable confidence, a testament to the fact that Pete sketched the entire initial collection herself. She jokes that some early designs may have pushed the envelope a little too far, even for America’s biggest retailer. “The line is probably gonna be one of the sexiest things that I’ve seen in Walmart,” Pete says, followed by her unmistakable boisterous laugh filling the air. With the launch of Hot Girl Summer, Pete becomes the first hip-hop artist in history to have their own swimwear line. Talk about raising the bar.
Just like with her music, Pete is intentional about the deals she makes. Partnering with Walmart for the Hot Girl Summer swimwear line wasn’t just a happy accident—it was rooted in purpose. The fact that the collection is available at over 500 stores nationwide and all pieces ring in under $30 means she’s making swimwear easy and democratic for all Hotties. “I’ve created such a bond with a lot of my Hotties, and I feel like I just know what they want,” she explains, nodding to the line’s accessibility. “I want people to feel confident in it and like they had a little piece of me wherever they go this summer.”
But confidence, Pete explains, is much more than just what you look like. It’s almost like you can feel the deep feminine rage radiating off the screen when she talks about deconstructing the notion of having a “bikini body.” “You should wear whatever you want to wear whenever you feel like it—not when you’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve lost five pounds, and I can finally wear this swimsuit,'” she pleads. “You need to be confident because when you’re confident, you make the clothes look better.”
One only needs to look at our cover shoot in Miami, where Pete stepped into a tropical, lush paradise wearing the pieces from her line. The designs are deeply Megan Thee Stallion, aligning with her personal sense of style and the fiery Texan heat. “In some capacity, I’ve always had on a bikini at some point, whether it was going to the pool or mixing and matching bikinis with jeans,” she says, alluding to the inspiration of the line. “It’s also inspired by vintage swimwear and models I used to look at for inspiration—like Naomi Campbell or Tyra Banks on the runway—[and] things that made me feel good when I was coming up.”
Style is a powerful force of change for up-and-coming artists, who are often guided by teams forcing them to fit the mold of what a celebrity should and shouldn’t look like. A star’s look is often hypercurated by a large team of men in suits and stylists, who put them in a fashion box of what’s deemed appropriate for their brand. Pete admits that her image was something she used to get lost in before reconnecting with who she really is and centering that version of herself above all else. “My whole vibe and silhouette changed, and I feel like it really wasn’t me when I would let people dress me in the beginning,” she says. Before the world knew her for “Savage,” it was just Megan Thee Stallion and her cargo pants, sneakers, and booty shorts against the world when she was onstage during the early days of her career. “As I kept going and I realized I could use the word ‘no,’ my style definitely started to form back into who I am now,” she adds. “I definitely learned that I don’t have to dress how people expect me to dress like a ‘celebrity.'”
(Image credit: Future)
While the scandalous bikinis and thigh-high boots act as an armor for Pete, there’s a softer, more vulnerable side that comes out when she talks about the way fashion makes her feel. She divulges she often wears her favorite T-shirts when she’s in Megan Pete mode as compared to her Megan Thee Stallion persona. They’re practically like a security blanket, she admits, and when paired with jeans and a few signature chains, the look becomes her version of casual camouflage.
Fashion, for Pete, isn’t just about performance; it’s about protection, comfort, expression, and control. Just take her look at the 2025 Met Gala, for starters. The artist paid homage to one of the first pioneers in Black stardom, Josephine Baker. “She was a trailblazer, and in that sense, when you see a woman daring to be different at a time where it definitely wasn’t accepted, history just repeats itself,” Pete says. “I was going through a list of different Black women who had broken ceilings, and it’s only right to honor them as well. I just wanted people to remember that Josephine was one of the original baddies.” Baker and Black women at large are the backbone of society, often pioneers of everything deemed cool and trendy ages before the masses adopt the same things. It’s something Pete honors in her work, day in and day out. “Black women have always been the blueprint, so you’ve just got to give flowers when they’re due,” she adds.
(Image credit: Future)
By all accounts, Megan Thee Stallion is ready to stand up and demand the public’s attention even more in 2025. She teases a string of singles potentially dropping later this year, although a full-bodied album is yet to materialize. (“I’m finding exactly what I want to sound like this year,” Pete tells me.) She’s already making her game plan for the next business she’s launching. (Perhaps in the food space? I make sure to tell her the Hotties are demanding a meal-prep cookbook in her comments section.) With the debut of the Hot Girl Summer swimwear line, Megan Thee Stallion is not only a rapper. She’s a full-blown multi-hyphenate. “I just want this hot girl shit to be worldwide. I don’t want it to only be about one thing,” she admits. “I want to take over all the spaces I want to be involved in.” Megan Thee Business Woman, if you will! Above all, though, Pete tells me she’s doing this for the women who see her taking up space. “I feel like I’ve been through some of the most horrible things in my life, and I feel like a lot of people wanted to count me out. … I even wanted to count me out. At one point, I didn’t even know if I could keep going,” she says. “But you know what? There is somebody that is going through something equally as bad, and they’re watching to see what I’m gonna do next—like, ‘Is she gonna be better? Can she prevail?’ And I did, and I do every day.”
Megan Thee Stallion may have started as a viral sensation with a fire freestyle and a dream, but in 2025, she’s the embodiment of resilience wrapped in rhinestones. At the heart of all the hustle is a woman who’s still evolving, still dreaming, still showing up for herself and for the women watching. She’s rewriting the rules of what it means to be a rap star, a CEO, and a cultural force, all on her own terms. So what’s next for Megan Thee Stallion? Whatever she damn well pleases. When the hot girl coach says she’s just getting started, you better believe her.
Photographer: Kanya Iwana
Stylist: Eric Archibald
Hairstylist: Kellon Deryck
Makeup Artist: Diana Shin
Manicurist: Ginger Lopez
Special Thanks to The Standard Spa, Miami Beach
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Hot Girl Summer by Megan Thee Stallion
Dipped in Gold One-Piece
Hot Girl Summer by Megan Thee Stallion
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Hot Girl Summer by Megan Thee Stallion
Chicas Bikini Bottoms
Hot Girl Summer by Megan Thee Stallion
Little Black Dress Coverup
Hot Girl Summer by Megan Thee Stallion
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Hot Girl Summer by Megan Thee Stallion
Sunset Butterfly Bottoms
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