When I was growing up, I wanted to dress like a lot of my idols, but I simply couldn't afford it, or my mother would say, 'Too much make-up' or 'It's too old for you.' So all I've ever worried about is that my fans could relate to me, and as a teenager with the same tastes and interests.

I think before, in the '80s, it was more about fashion and music videos and a lot of radio: getting out there and the fans learning who you were and your music.

From the time I was 2, I told my mom I was going to be a singer. And she'd say, 'Sure, honey, and tomorrow you'll want to be a dancer.'

I have a stepfather who isn't around just because he wants to be with my mother and sisters. There's more to it. He's around for the money. He's proven that in a lot of ways. And my mom loves him. And that's not wrong. But when it interferes with my career and my business and becomes a threat to me, there's a problem.

We don't give importance to Page 3 or to appear at all the events. Our focus is on our kids and our home.

Novels by British writers are among my favorites because our family has enjoyed travel in England and because they are written with an economy of words as if they were written with a pen instead of a computer. Penelope Fitzgerald is a favorite.

I know my father believed and my mother believed in and supported the suffrage movement, and I remember my mother taking me to suffrage meetings held in the home of a Quaker family that lived not far from us.

Parenting isn't just parenting your own child.