Inside Blue Ivy Carter’s Insanely Fabulous Life

Blue Ivy Steals the Show in NEW PIC With Beyonce & Jay-Z

Think back to how you rang in the new year back when you were in elementary school. Probably some variation of sparkling grape juice, those crinkly headbands that dig into your scalp after roughly seven minutes and relentlessly begging your parents to let you stay up ’til midnight, right? 

Which is absolutely what Blue Ivy Carter did to mark the start of 2020 except not at all because at just 11 years old she’s already cooler than pretty much everyone.

Three years ago, before the coronavirus torpedoed most social plans, Beyoncé and Jay-Z‘s firstborn accompanied them to a bash also attended by Megan Thee Stallion, one of 2019’s biggest success stories, a musician who managed to launch an entire movement simply by declaring that people should own their confidence.

But with all deference to the Houston native (a three-time Grammy winner), in her Instagram upload with two-thirds of the Carter clan, she’s entirely upstaged by the then-7-year-old, who had already mastered both her angles and the ability to exude utter coolness. 

She’s already an in-demand model, an audiobook narrator, and a beauty line, skincare line, fashion line—really any line the tween puts her stamp of approval on would sell out within minutes—are presumed to be forthcoming eventually now that Mom and Dad have worked through that whole trademark battle.

Because their lawyers’ claims that Blue Ivy is a “cultural icon” isn’t a hyperbole dreamt up by overly proud parents. She really is a pint-sized trendsetter “reported on by popular press, and whose name generates millions of hits on a Google search,” as their brief details. 

But despite that splashy debut, and her plainly obvious destiny, Jay has said his goals for her were quite humble. As he shared in a 2017 interview with T, The New York Times Style Magazine, his chief task as a father was to instill an empathy for others and the ability to understand just how fortunate they were. Because it’s not as if he could—or would even want to—recreate his childhood, where he had to scrap for every opportunity growing up amid the drugs and violence in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects. 

“There’s a delicate balance to that, right? Because you have to educate your children on the world as it exists today and how it got to that space, but my child doesn’t need the same tools that I needed growing up. I needed certain tools to survive my area that my child doesn’t need. They’re growing up in a different environment,” he shared in a sit-down mere months after he and his wife welcomed now-5-year-old twins Rumi and Sir Carter.

“But also they have to know their history,” he continued. “Have a sense of what it took to get to this place. And have compassion for others. The most important thing I think out of all this is to teach compassion and to identify with everyone’s struggle and to know these people made these sacrifices for us to be where we are and to push that forward—for us.”

He had the means to literally give them the world, Jay acknowledged, but he was more interested in making sure they absorbed certain life lessons. “Treat people as they are, no matter who they are, no matter where they sit in the world, not to, like, be super nice to someone at a high position or mean to someone who they’ve deemed to be below them,” he explained. “I can’t buy you love, I can’t show it to you. I can show you affection and I can, you know, I can express love, but I can’t put it in your hand. I can’t put compassion in your hand. I can’t show you that. So the most beautiful things are things that are invisible. That’s where the important things lie.” 

She’s also joined her parents in the recording studio, at movie premieres, on red carpets, at the Super Bowl, courtside at NBA games and whatever other decidedly upscale event the music royalty deign to attend. Because at this point, Blue is not an antsy kid who needs to be reminded to sit still or keep her cool around bold-faced names. (That is, of course, unless LeBron James is involved.) 

She is the bold-faced name, cooly attempting to outbid Tyler Perry for a $20,000 acrylic painting at Grandma Tina Knowles’ 2018 Wearable Art Gala, helping induct her father into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and reminding Mom and Dad to shut it down when they got too excited cheering for Camila Cabello‘s call for immigration reform at the 2018 Grammys. 

Because while Blue is a lot of things, a person with no chill is not one of them. Just check out the subtly baller why she celebrated her 2021 Grammy win. 

“She is very sassy, high energy and knows what she wants,” a source told People of the elementary schooler. “Especially after the twins were born, Beyoncé made sure that Blue was able to embrace her new role as a big sister. She also lets her go to video shoots, award shows and music recording. They have a very special bond!”

At the root, beyond the whole mother-daughter connection, is a love of entertaining. “Of course both Beyoncé and Blue love music,” continued the source. “Blue loves singing, dancing and performing. She is a natural.”

Because having reached nearly every achievement a person can capture, Beyoncé has begun to focus on her legacy, the roads she can create for her kids and others like them. “Success looks different to me now. Having miscarriages taught me that I had to mother myself before I could be a mother to someone else,” she mused to Elle. “Then I had Blue, and the quest for my purpose became so much deeper. I died and was reborn in my relationship, and the quest for self became even stronger.”

So she approaches each new challenge with this in mind, turning her headlining gig at 2018’s Coachella, for example, into an unabashed celebration of African American culture. 

“As a black woman, I used to feel like the world wanted me to stay in my little box and black women often feel underestimated. I wanted us to be proud of not only the show, but the process, proud of the struggle, thankful for the beauty that comes with a painful history and rejoice in the pain, rejoice in the imperfections and the wrongs that are so damn right,” she explained in her Netflix doc. “I wanted everyone to feel grateful for their curves, their sass, their honesty, thankful for their freedom. It was no rules and we were able to create a free, safe space where none of us were marginalized.”

In the end, she shared, she felt as if she’d “made something that made my daughter proud, made my mother proud, my father proud, all of the people that are my brothers and sisters around the world.”

And beyond that, she’s helped create a world where Blue, still years away from being able to drive a car, can confidently proclaim, she’s “Never seen a ceiling in my whole life.” 

Because, really, where’s the lie? 

(Originally published Jan. 7, 2020 at 3 a.m. PT)