Demi Lovato says she decided at 16 that she'd only ever cry if she was being paid to do so
- Demi Lovato spoke to Bustle about allowing herself to be more vulnerable and express her emotions.
- "Before quarantine, it was very difficult for me to cry," she said.
- The singer said that recently, she's allowed herself "to feel the pains of all the losses that I've had or the adversities or traumas that I've faced."
Demi Lovato says she trained herself as a teenager to hold back tears unless she was being paid.
"Before quarantine, it was very difficult for me to cry," the 27-year-old singer said in a new cover story for Bustle. "I had programmed the thought into my head when I was 16 that I'm only going to cry if people pay me to."
Lovato, who has been quarantined with boyfriend Max Ehrich amid the coronavirus pandemic, went on to say that recently, she's allowed herself to be more vulnerable.
"I started doing all this work, allowing myself to feel the pains of all the losses that I've had or the adversities or traumas that I've faced," she said. "I think my ability to be vulnerable and be more intimate with people has really heightened."
Lovato, who rose to fame after starring in the 2008 Disney Channel movie "Camp Rock," has been candid about the ups and downs of her career. She's spoken openly about her eating disorder, her experiences in rehab, her near-fatal overdose, and the pressures of growing up in Hollywood.
Lovato has also channeled her emotions into her studio albums and documentaries. She gave fans an eye-opening look at her career in "Demi Lovato: Stay Strong" (2012) and "Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated" (2017). The singer also released a book in 2013 titled "Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year."
Speaking to Bustle, Lovato said that she wrote the book in a few days, and "it was more people-pleasing than anything, and then I realized through all of that people-pleasing that I wasn't being authentic."
The "I Love Me" singer, who will be releasing a YouTube docuseries, told the publication that her goal is to have a career that's "about my music and my lyrics and my message," rather than her body.
"I want a long-lasting career that I don't have to change myself for," she said.