Demi Lovato: I Cut My Hair to Free Me from Christian Gender Expectations!
Demi Lovato has spoken about so much, from her horrifying overdose to embracing her queer identity.
Recently, the beloved pop star has been sporting very short hair.
That was not an arbitray choice. It was liberating.
And Demi is explaining exactly how she felt that this superficial change set her free.
Demi Lovato sat down wtih the incomparable Drew Barrymore to talk about recent changes.
“I cut my hair,” Demi noted.
She explained that she did this “because I just wanted to free myself.”
Specifically, Demi wanted to free herself “of all of the gender and sexuality norms.”
She detailed that these are expectations “that were placed on me as a Christian in the South.”
People’s upbringings can shape them in many ways, and it’s not always good.
“And when I cut my hair,” Demi expressed, “I felt so liberated.”
She felt freer “because I wasn’t subscribing to an ideal or a belief placed upon me.”
Demi had previously felt pressured “to be something that I’m not.”
“Secrets keep you sick,” Demi quoted.
“I’ve heard that a million times, and I fully believe it,” she affirmed.
“Now there’s no secrets for the world to find out,” Demi noted.
“I just put it out there,” Demi stated.
“And,” she added, “I’m like, ‘Hey, this is it, this is me.”
Demi declared: “If you don’t like it, fine.'”
Drew Barrymore is a fellow former child star, famously so, and found a lot of what Demi shared relatable.
“I’m really excited that I might get the chance to talk to somebody,” she said.
She continued: “That might understand certain things that I have experienced and felt and gone through.”
Demi was also thrilled, and she spoke about the uncomfortable dynamic with her parents.
“My parents, they did the best that they could,” she said generously.
“There’s no manual on how to raise a child star,” Demi observed.
“And,” Demi recalled, “when the child star retorts back after the parent says, ‘You’re grounded for sneaking out at three in the morning, whatever.'”
She continued: “I retorted with: ‘Well, I pay the bills. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do to keep me grounded?'”
“It was challenging,” Demi acknowledged.
Demi noted that realities of show business made her feel like part of adult spaces as a child.
“The adults leave work and they go and have a drink; the kids, what do we (do)?” Demi expressed.
“So it was this weird thing to think about,” she admitted.
“Especially then when you become a teenager in Hollywood,” Demi recalled.
“And,” she added, “your adult peers are going to a bar after work or whatever.”
“And,” Demi described, “you’re 17 thinking, ‘Well, what do I get to do to play?'”
“I had this mentality of ‘if you’re gonna work me like an adult, I get to party like one,'” Demi explained.
“But,” she acknowledged, “the reality was adults weren’t partying like I was.”
Demi has a lot of experience to share with the world. We are, as always, happy that she is doing so much better these days.
