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.
“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.”