Spy: Lizzie Marvelly's revenge porn message goes global

Lizzie Marvelly is fast becoming as famous for her opinions as her voice. The reborn pop singer is making global headlines for her website Villainesse and the celebrity campaign #MyBodyMyterms, challenging perceptions about victim-blaming, revenge porn, consent and sexual violence.

"Waking up to emails from the Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan in the USA and BuzzFeed, asking to feature #MyBodyMyTerms on their websites is quite something," says Marvelly.

But it's been writing a piece for the The Huffington Post that has really thrilled the singing activist.

Marvelly tells Spy: "I actually screwed up my courage and sent #MyBodyMyTerms to Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

"I'd been very fortunate to meet her late last year, so I thought I'd send it to her to see what she thought. I had no idea I'd end up writing a blog for Huff Post as a result of that email!

"It has been incredible to be able to spark conversations about revenge porn on such a global scale. The fact that people are reading about it, talking about it and thinking about it internationally kind of blows my mind."

Marvelly's vision for Villainesse is to empower young women in a bad ass way. The name is a play on the idea of strong women being cast as villains.

"Sometimes you have to be a bit bad ass to do good things," explains Marvelly.

And she's learning to incorporate that attitude into her songwriting as well.

"When I was younger I was afraid to make any kind of social statement in my song writing, but I'm really passionate about social justice, so it makes sense that I will write songs about it."

Speaking of song writing, Marvelly wrote Made for You, a feature song in the Kiwi movie Born to Dance, with Kiwi hip hop pioneer, P Money (Peter Wadams).

"The single is going well. It's been on radio, and I saw it in the film at the premiere, which was a really special moment. Pete is an amazing person to work with. We've been working together for about a year now and I'm so grateful for his support and guidance."

The duo is working on a few new songs, which Marvelly hopes to release over the coming months. She is also planning the next steps for #MyBodyMyTerms and Villainesse.

- nzherald.co.nz