Andra Liemandt is both a dreamer and a doer: she wanted to prove to her daughters that no dream was out of reach, and so between the ages of 35 and 40, she learned the drums, formed a band, founded a label, and started a movement. 

Her band, The Mrs., plays with the purpose of creating music and lyrics that inspire women everywhere to view themselves in a different way — a way that includes always feeling enough. Their message is being heard far and wide: their viral video landed them on a world-wide media tour this past year, with appearances on Good Morning America and The Queen Latifah Show and features in Cosmopolitan, Parents, and Austin Woman Magazine.

Women, says Andra, lead complex and dynamic lives, with jobs, children, friendships and relationships to navigate, all while holding themselves to harsh standards. She saw there was an alternative.

TLM sat down with Andra to talk about music, self-talk, and how women everywhere are realizing the importance of knowing that they are enough.

 You’ve mentioned your dream in several interviews and on your website. What is it?
My dream is that all women, everywhere, will look at themselves in the mirror and think, Yes. I’m enough, right now. I didn’t do that for a long time. Many women reading this probably don’t look in the mirror and feel like they are enough. There’s usually a caveat: “I’m enough…as soon as I spend more time relaxing with my children/creating healthier meals/stop checking work emails while with my family.”  

That will never happen! That list continues to grow everyday. You can’t check everything off. We shouldn’t let this list dictate how we feel, and it’s a shame to think that those tasks would make any woman better, or complete. My dream is that women will share this message with each other, and lift each other up. We need to do this for ourselves and for our daughters and for our future generations to come.

Agreed! How do you convey this message in your music?
One of the things that really propelled me forward was the radio. I just wasn’t hearing anything that spoke to me — a wife, a mother, with a career, friends, and a dynamic and complex role to manage. It just wasn’t out there!

I wanted to connect to other women and create a way to lift us up. I wanted to offer lyrics that other women would hear and think: I can relate to this. So the lyrics are a mixture, really, of what’s on our minds these days, what we’re always thinking about as well as positive reinforcement, you know? Lyrics that inspire all of us to think about ourselves, our lives, and the people around us in a different way.

Your Magic Mirror video went viral! What was that experience like?

It was WILD! We loved every second of it because we started connecting with such a wide group of women, all at once! It really helped us feel the love we have for one another. Everything I do comes from such a deep place of love, and when we went viral, it was like receiving this feeling back, a million fold. It kept inspiring us to do even more and reach even more women.

It was also just a lot of fun to be able to share our message on such public platforms like Good Morning America-and as a viewer of the show, I kept pinching myself now that I was on the show…plus we got to wear some amazing outfits.

What was the most unexpected outcome?
After music video went viral, we had so many requests from people wanting to experience the Magic Mirror. At the time, the mirror did not travel. It was never supposed to!  But we knew we had to make it happen, and so we did. We created ways for people to get to experience the Magic Mirror since we knew how transformative it was. Now, it travels with us constantly, and we have the Mrs. Magic Mirror app! Through the experience, we’ve realized that the mirror is our sixth band member — she speaks to the heart of so many people.

The growth that we’ve had as a band in really learning what’s going on in the community of women has been astronomical…we’ve really learned so much. Helping people is not a one-size-fit-all solution. It’s listening, understanding the needs, and recalibrating to grow our mission in a way that guides us to be the place where women feel loved and supported.

What is The Mrs. focusing on now?
We’re releasing our holiday single, “What Christmas Means to Me.” We love making sure that just about every event we book has a charity or cause attached — we want to support all everyone out there trying to make a positive change in the world, like Just Keep Livin’ Foundation and SafePlace. We’d love to work with The Kind Campaign and Alexis Jones of I Am That Girl. We’re thrilled to continue our focus on inspiring women to think about themselves, their loved ones, and their lives in a different way.