Why Demi Lovato Isn't Just Another "Sexy Pop Star" Now
Britney's strip show at the 2000 VMAs. Christina's Stripped era. Bieber's shirtless obsession. Miley and twerkgate.
Almost inevitably, every pop star who blew up as a kid has had some type of coming-of-age, take-my-clothes-off era, as an attempt to strip away their child-star image and be taken seriously as an adult. Demi Lovato's is happening now via the subject matter and visuals behind her upcoming Confident album, but if you're quickly writing her off as the next Disney star to go bad, you're not paying attention.
In November 2010, Lovato entered the Timberline Knolls rehab center for depression, self-harm and an eating disorder. The latter issue, bulimia and severe diet restrictions, came as a lasting result of childhood bullying.
"When I would ask them why they were being so mean to me," she recalled to ABC News, "they would just say, 'Well, you're fat.'" Lovato secretly cut herself as "a way of expressing my own shame, of myself, on my own body." Following the stay, Demi committed to a life of clean living (she lived in an L.A. "sober house" in January 2011) and has become an outspoken advocate for body and mental health issues.
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