By the time Megan Thee Stallion sat down for a recent interview in her dressing room at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway, where she was days away from opening an eight-week run in Moulin Rouge!, she had already lived through more loss than most people face in a lifetime. Her father was incarcerated during the first eight years of her life, and she lost him while she was still in ninth grade. Her mother, her first manager and most devoted champion, died in 2019 from a brain tumor. Megan was not yet 25. The world barely gave her a chance to breathe before demanding more from her.
All of that is in the foundation of everything she has built since.
The empire that grew from grief
Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, who grew up in Houston and attended Prairie View A&M University while pursuing music on the side, has become one of the most commercially significant entertainers in the country. She has nearly 75 million social media followers, three Grammy Awards, a Walmart swimwear line called Hot Girl Summer, a tequila brand called Chicas Divertidas and a Popeyes franchise in Miami Beach that she opened in January 2026 with an exclusive menu item.
She is the first millionaire in her family. In 2024, at 28, she became one of the youngest artists to secure full ownership of her new music’s masters and publishing rights going forward. None of it was given to her.
Speaking with Entrepreneur magazine, Megan described losing both parents before the age of 25 as a forced and painful education in independence. She had to move forward without the safety net most people rely on, and she credits that experience, however hard, with pushing her to take her business seriously rather than simply her music career.
Why she thinks most people misuse social media
Megan’s view of her own rise is more considered than the standard advice from someone with her level of fame. She draws a deliberate distinction between being seen and being understood, arguing that views and followers are fleeting, while genuine connection is what actually builds something that lasts. When she was a college student posting freestyle videos on Instagram back in 2013, she was not chasing clicks. She wanted people to feel like they already knew her.
She has carried that principle into everything since. Her fans, whom she calls Hotties, follow her from city to city on tour, returning not just for the music but because of the relationship they feel they have with her. She attributes that loyalty to openness, specifically about therapy, about grief, about what it meant to grow up without a stable family structure and then to lose a mother during what should have been the best year of her life.
Megan has also been intentional about separating Megan Thee Stallion the performer from Megan Pete the private person, a distinction she said became necessary as fame began changing how even longtime friends saw her. The version of herself she shares publicly is grounded in values her grandmother modeled, including consistent warmth and generosity toward everyone she encounters. But she is clear that this public persona, while rooted in her real values, is not the whole of who she is.
What guides her business decisions
Every new venture she considers gets filtered through two questions: whether her late mother would have been proud, and whether her audience would see it as a natural extension of who she already is. In her telling, every brand she has built has passed both tests organically. The Hot Girl Summer swimwear line connects to a phrase that has been part of her identity for years. The Popeyes partnership links directly to memories of her college days at Prairie View A&M. The tequila brand grows from the personality her fans already associate with her.
She has since expanded the swimwear line into options for men and dogs, and more projects are reportedly in development, including a fragrance and an anime series. She is currently in a relationship with Dallas Mavericks player Klay Thompson, though neither has addressed their future publicly.
In her own description of the philosophy she has built everything on: when people truly understand you rather than simply recognize you, they do not need to be sold to. They follow where you go, because they are already invested in who you are.
SOURCE: Entrepreneur