SZA's advice to her younger self: “Trust yourself…[don't] try so hard to fit in”

ABC/Randy HolmesAs SZA prepares to receive the Billboard Women in Music Rule Breaker Award on Thursday, she’s reminiscing about her childhood, and realizing that she should have embraced the fact that she was different.

“If I could give my younger self any advice, it would probably be to trust yourself or not try so hard to fit in, she tells Billboard. “I was so different that I think trying to fit in at all was so obviously painful for me — and for other people, who caught second-hand embarrassment trying to watch me assimilate.”

The 28-year-old singer was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised