Demi Lovato talks about how beauty standards affected her teenage personality.
In a new exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the singer-songwriter (who uses the pronouns she/they) got candid about what advice she’d give her teenage self — and how beauty standards shouldn’t affect how you see yourself.
“What I would tell my teenage self is don’t hold yourself to anyone else’s standards but your own,” said the “Cool for the Summer” singer, 31. “And if your own becomes too critical, then look within and try to find that love for to himself. I think it’s very important to find love for yourself no matter what age you are.”
Lovato has been in the spotlight for most of their career – at just 10 years old, she starred in Barney & Friendsand after creating a career on the Disney Channel, eight albums behind her, and for a while as The X factor judge, Lovato had time to reflect on what beauty and age mean in the music industry.
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For Lovato, spending so much time on set provided plenty of opportunities to learn about beauty and makeup from the best of the best.
“…The best beauty tip I got from someone on set is to never sleep with makeup on,” they revealed. “I never did that anyway, but it was really important to me to hear it again and it kind of stuck with me. I never sleep with makeup on. It doesn’t matter how late the night goes, it doesn’t matter if I’m up until morning, I take my makeup off and do my skin care routine and I’m very diligent about it. I just went through it.”
The singer and actor have also been candid about their struggles with abuse, addiction and mental health — in a previous interview with PEOPLE, they revealed that people would write “hate petitions” about her and say hateful things on social media while in the throes of addiction. Lovato now has better ways to deal with online hate.
“My relationship with social media has evolved over the years from looking for validation online to not looking at online comments at all,” Lovato said. “If I happen to see something negative, it doesn’t affect me like it used to. And I don’t know if it’s just age or how many years I’ve been in the public eye, I just don’t let it feel like I used to. He no longer has the power over me that he used to.”
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She continued: “I keep it positive. I will post, but I won’t go deep into the comments section. I understand that people who comment mean things have no awareness or lack self love and respect because anyone who governs from a higher sense of good will not comment anything like that on someone else’s page. And if they really love themselves, they don’t focus on other people. So I have sympathy for the haters on the internet too.”
Among Lovato’s many career changes, they are now brand ambassadors for the anti-wrinkle injectable, Xeomin. The singer has no shame in getting rejected for her wrinkles — even if some fans seem to think she’s too young for them.
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“I love the product and it’s smarttox, so it only gives you the ingredients you need to get your best results,” Lovato said. “…I also really like the campaign because I’ve always believed in making empowering decisions and being true to yourself and owning the choices that help you look and feel your best.”
“It’s authentic for me to share my experience because I’m so transparent with my fans all the time and I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve wanted to share that with my fans because I’m always transparent and this is just something that I chose to be transparent about,” Lovato added. It normalizes it.”
“So don’t listen to the skeptics or anything that might tell you how to create your own beauty routine. I would just say listen to what makes you feel comfortable in your own skin,” she finished.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education