INFINITE POSSIBILITIES

P!nk was never one to shy away from a challenge (you've seen her aerial acrobatics), and she's continuing to find new ways to push herself. At 43, she feels stronger than ever and is getting ready to embark on a brand-new tour. Warning: Her nothing-is-off-limits attitude may inspire you to try a daring feat.

- MOLLY CREEDEN

How should a woman act?

It's a question that's been asked of, and because of, P!nk for as long as she can remember. Should she be frothy and flirty, like her pop-star peers of the early aughts? Strong, like the Williams sisters who inspire her? Irreverent, like Billie Eilish, who inspires her 11-year-old daughter? Should she make her own wine? Do 75 push-ups in one take? Fling herself in a harness over a stadium of 70 000 people?

The answer, I don't need to tell you, is that she should be however she wants to be, and that was P!nk's response long before it was cool. Twenty-three years into a career that's produced nine albums, 15 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and three Grammy awards, P!nk (born Alecia Moore) has approached pop stardom with a brazen, don't-test-me energy that's surprising, in a way, because at her essence, she describes herself as "goofy," "cuddly" and a person who often acts out of guilt. It's at odds with the "crazy, snarling, man-eating, righteous person" she thinks some men have her pegged as particularly during the less-forgiving era in which she became famous. "I was the perfect person to take all of that flak," she says of the build-them-up-to-tear them-down culture of the early 2000s. "I have very thick skin. I do what I want. I can handle criticism; it doesn't move my needle. It hurts my feelings, I guess - or it used to. But it doesn't change my actions."