Beyoncé is Happy to Be a Role Model

It's a good thing Beyoncé is comfortable with her status as an inspirational figure, because with hit songs like "Single Ladies" that empower women, that's exactly what she is! "I know that my niche is anthems, and I think that's what I'm good at as far as songwriting," she tells Allure of those songs that make women jump to their feet. "Probably the best songs I write are about relationships, and flipping the roles between women and men, and things that women go through."

"I remember when I started doing my hair myself — I cut bangs, and I started curling my hair and pressing it, literally, with an iron," she recalls. "The girls from Destiny's Child, we would put our hair on the ironing board, and iron it, which is so crazy! My mom who used to own a hair salon was like, 'We have to get you out of your own hair, because you are destroying it!'"

She's come a long way from her old life, and with husband Jay-Z, she's looking toward the future of their family.

"I definitely want to have a child," she says. "But I know from my nephew it's a lot. I hope that those things will just happen naturally. I still haven't had time to relax."