Hillary Clinton sat down for a 30-minute interview with singer Mary J. Blige. | AP Photo Clinton says it's 'really hard' for women to be seen as tough and likeable

It’s difficult for a woman to be perceived as both tough and likable, Hillary Clinton said Friday, lamenting that women are constantly being judged by their looks.

“Yes, I think it’s really hard. To be honest, I think it’s really hard,” Clinton told R&B singer Mary J. Blige in a 30-minute interview on the premiere of Apple Music’s “The 411 with Mary J. Blige.” “I don’t know why it’s so hard, but, you know, I think it’s rooted in, you know, tens of thousands of years of how people’s lives have been defined, what it’s meant to be a woman or a man and how society was organized.”


“And so for women to be assuming leading roles in business or entertainment or politics or whatever it might be, it still is not fully understood because there’s no blueprint for doing it. Everybody comes to it differently,” she continued. “And so people are always judging how we look and how we talk and all the rest of it. I get all of that, but one of the reasons I’m so proud to be running for president is because I wanna break that highest and hardest glass ceiling.”

In the pre-taped interview, Clinton acknowledged that not every girl and boy wants to run for president but maintained that she wants those children “to feel like there are no barriers in America” and chastised people who “point fingers and scapegoat others,” a likely reference to her opponent, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“And I really am against people who try to maintain division and, you know, point fingers and scapegoat others instead of saying: ‘Hey, the American dream is big enough for everybody. Let’s keep growing it,’” Clinton said. “So I know that I’m under a lot of scrutiny and a lot of attention is being paid to me and I do the best I can. That’s all I can do. I can only be myself. And I hope, though, by running this campaign — and I hope winning this campaign — it’s going to really change people’s minds and it will open doors for a lot of people, too.”

Clinton, a former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state, added that it’s not easy being in the public spotlight, noting that when “maybe all you wanna do is just go off by yourself,” you can’t.

“You gotta get up every day, you’ve gotta do a TV program, you have to entertain, I have to go out and campaign or whatever it is we’re doing,” she said. “And I think it’s important, though, to stay grounded in who you are and what’s important because the public eye has a way of magnifying things that aren’t important and dismissing things that are. And so part of my mantra to myself is take criticism seriously. Maybe you can learn something from it, but don’t take it personally. Don’t let people own your heart, own your mind, really under the pressure you feel, turn you into something — somebody you’re not.”

She also gave Blige some advice after the host thanked her “for not letting them stop you as a woman.”

“They try to get inside your head,” Clinton said. “You can’t let that happen.”