Alessia Cara

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 grew up in this little city called Brampton. It's pretty suburban - there's not a lot going on. In my neighbourhood, specifically, there weren't a lot of other kids so I would just spend a lot of time inside. ”

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. ”

I was a troublemaking kid. ”

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. ”

I think the media can definitely show more diversity - different sizes of women, different colours of women, just more diversity in general. ”

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'm just glad that there's some diversity in the music industry with women so people know that you can be literally anything and still be able to make it. ”

Canada is a really big melting pot of cultures, so we ended up with a giant mosaic of different music. ”

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. ”