Beauty comes in all forms. It's not just external; it's internal as well.
Alessia Cara
Flannel shirts, denim, Converse, a guitar, messy hair? That's literally me.
I want 'Scars to Your Beautiful' to reach different types of women. The girl I am talking about, it's me, it's you - it's every girl who has struggled with feeling not good enough. I want to talk about all the different extremes that girls go through to feel beautiful.
I always told myself that if I was going to be given a voice, I might as well say something worth listening to and not something that's just going to feed people stupidity.
Realize that everyone that you think is perfect feels like they're not good enough, too.
I'd like to shut off all the noise and allow people to be creative without all the judgments and standards that we think we have to follow.
Cats are evil, and they hate me.
Real social situations are taking a back seat to social media.
Every time I sing, it it's a reminder to myself that I have to be confident.
I really want to speak for young women, especially because I feel like we're constantly brainwashed in everyday life.
My family is from the south of Italy in this little place called Calabria. It's a big part of my family, the Italian culture. I grew up around it. My parents speak Italian, and I speak Italian.
It's important to show that there's different ways of doing things. Some people like to be glamorous, and that's perfectly fine, and that's amazing. If I were that style, then I would do that. I'd wear heels every day, and I'd strut around in a dress, but that's not me.
When I was shopping around trying to get signed, I made it a point to say, 'This is who I am.' I dress the way I normally dress, and I just wanted to find a label that would accept me for that.
I don't really dance. I don't drink or smoke. Being at parties is very awkward.
Maybe I'm not a typical pop star, but I don't think there's a mould for a pop star or singer. You can do whatever you want.
I keep my hair curly and natural because I really just wanna show who I am.
I don't think a lot of artists have the freedom that I have when it comes to dressing in general.
I think we all have the right to feel 100 percent beautiful and 100 percent confident without pleasing anybody 'cause we're not here for anybody else.
I had a fairly regular childhood. I was a pretty boring kid. I didn't do much. I was always thinking, but I didn't really say a lot.
Everywhere I go, every city, they're always like, 'What's in the water in Canada? What's in the water in Toronto?'
I've never been one to crave attention, which I know means that this is probably the worst career to pick. I get anxious even when people come up to me for pictures sometimes. That's the one thing that makes me hesitant about my future. But I love music too much to not do it.
I barely have time to think. But the best way to stay grounded is to take it one day at a time.
I first picked up a guitar when I was ten years old; my parents surprised me with it for my tenth birthday. I started taking lessons when I was thirteen, but only for a few months, and then I just kept teaching myself.
I'm a fan of real singers. I just gravitate towards that.
I feel like I'm in my own head a lot; it just feels amazing, but scary, weird and confusing.
I don't wear a lot of makeup ever, even when I do interviews or when I'm on TV. I just keep it me, and I think it's important to show people I'm a regular person and regular people are beautiful, too.
I've never hosted a party in my life, not even my own birthday party. I'd feel really uncomfortable saying, 'Hey everybody, let's celebrate me!' But I'm not antisocial. I don't hate people.
As a kid, my parents would always listen to a lot of Beatles, Queen, Elvis. My mom was born and raised in Italy, and my dad was born in Canada and moved back and forth between Canada and Italy, so they would also listen to all the big Italian stars like Eros Ramazzotti, Gigi D'Alessio, Tiziano Ferro, Laura Pausini.
I see songs in colors; I see days of the week. Each day of the week I relate to a gender, and it's very weird. I can taste words sometimes. It's very strange.
It's hard to consider myself one when a lot of my fans and people who are calling me a role model are people my age and sometimes older than me. I feel like they're at the same walk of life that I'm in right now, and they can probably teach me things about life, too.
I don't want to have one hit, one song of the summer, and then have me disappear forever. I really want my things to last, and I want my songs and my bodies of work to resonate with people. I want to hit people - at least make a dent in them. I want to make a mark somehow.
When you're from an unknown place, I think it's hard for you to believe it's possible. You think you have to go to L.A. or New York to make it, but I don't think that's true. I'm glad to be an example that you can make it from where you are. All you need is talent and hard work.
You don't always have to be popular and do things everyone else is doing.
Throughout my high school years, I was very quiet, I didn't have many friends. I distanced myself from a lot of people.
I remember making a 'thank you' video when one of my videos got to 50 views!
I always did music privately as a hobby, I think partly because I was nervous to do it in front of other people.
Body image is something that girls struggle with every day, and it's something that I struggle with every day.
I am stubborn enough to know not to change myself.
That's all I ever wanted to do: put out music from the heart that people could relate to.
I don't know how to talk to people I don't know.
I feel like my whole life, I've had to prove myself to so many people because I'm young and because I'm a female; it's just constant. I'm always surprising people.
My house was very strange. I didn't do things other kids did because my parents were very strict - I stayed at home, quiet in my room.
In second grade, I told a bunch of kids there was a homeless person living between the portable classrooms outside our school. It caused panic, and the principal had to announce on the P.A. system that no one was living there. I pretended I didn't know who started the rumor.
I feel New York is too crazy for me, especially when you go to Times Square.
It's not that I don't care how I look, but I'd rather turn the attention to the music as much as possible.
I guess people don't think that young girls or young artists have opinions, but I'm so glad that there's artists like Lorde and Raury and Kehlani because they're showing other people that young people can have an opinion and a voice and do really well with it. I'm glad I can be one of those people.
I think fame is such a scary thing, and it's something I can never understand. It's terrifying, but it's the only way I get to do what I love every day, you know?
You can do anything and be a star. You can dress like however you want, and you can do whatever you want. If you wanna wear meat suits like Lady Gaga, good. She's freaking amazing! She's doing that, and she's unbelievable. I can wear T-shirts and still be great, too. So that's just what I'm proving to people.
Success is when you see something, and you say, 'I want to do that,' and then you do it. It's being happy with what you do and doing what you love every day.
I was one of those weird kids who didn't really speak or smile. I remember my teachers would call home and ask if everything was fine at home because I would never smile. Then I got into this phase, from maybe fourth to eighth grade, where my personality just did a 180.
