I don't think I had the aspiration to be a star growing up. I loved Madonna and Bette Midler, and I had my karaoke machine and would sing their songs.

Growing up in the public spotlight and having insecurities like every other girl, I really know what it's like to feel self-conscious.

Growing up, I was obsessed with Disney movies like 'The Little Mermaid,' 'Aladdin' and 'Beauty And The Beast.' I was always singing the songs from these movies, so to find myself in the studio with Alan Menken was an amazing experience. In fact, it was a dream come true.

Growing up in the public eye was really tough. When you're 14 and your body is changing, your life is changing, and people are watching every step you make, it's really hard to deal with. But I was pretty lucky, people didn't watch me that closely.

Cancer has been a dark thread that has run throughout my life. It's taken my friends, my parents. My beautiful son.

It's bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children's health than the pediatrician.

Our health-care morass is like the problems of global warming and the national debt - the kind of vast policy failure that is far easier to get into than to get out of. Americans say that they want leaders who will take on these problems.

But if you're asking my opinion, I would argue that a social justice approach should be central to medicine and utilized to be central to public health. This could be very simple: the well should take care of the sick.