Shania Twain could also be a queen of nation music nowadays, however the Canadian singer struggled tremendously in her youthful years.
Twain, 57, spoke candidly with the Sunday Times in regards to the lengths she would go to in her pre-pubescent years so as to cover her altering physique. Growing up with a bodily and sexually abusive stepfather, Twain noticed her eventual getting old into her teenage years as a menace.
“I hid myself and I would flatten my boobs. I would wear bras that were too small for me, and I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me. Make it easier to go unnoticed. Because, oh my gosh, it was terrible — you didn’t want to be a girl in my house,” Twain defined to the newspaper. “But then you go into society and you’re a girl and you’re getting the normal other unpleasant stuff too, and that reinforces it. So then you think, ‘Oh, I guess it’s just s****y to be a girl. Oh, it’s so s****y to have boobs.’ I was ashamed of being a girl.”
By age 22, her mother and father had died in a automotive accident, and Twain was left to lift her three youthful siblings. However, her relationship together with her physique did not enhance, and he or she continued to really feel “exploited.”
“All of a sudden it was like, well, what’s your problem? You know, you’re a woman and you have this beautiful body? What was so natural for other people was so scary for me. I felt exploited, but I didn’t have a choice now. I had to play the glamorous singer, had to wear my femininity more openly or more freely. And work out how I’m not gonna get groped, or raped by someone’s eyes, you know, and feel so degraded,” the singer said.
In her 20s, Twain gained a sense of confidence, using her body language to send the message “don’t even get any closer” when she walked into the room. But she found she liked her body, and “wanted to grow into it, appreciate it.”
“I used to be by no means an exhibitionist for the sake of, like, saying, , ‘Look at my tits.’ It was actually me coming into myself. It was a metamorphosis of kinds,” mentioned Twain, who hopes youthful women can study to exude that very same confidence.
These days, Twain says she’s “celebrating” her own sense of confidence in her songs, fashion choices, body language, and performances.
“I am celebrating escaping this horrible state of not wanting to be who I am. And I’m so confident. Now that I discovered that it’s OK to be a girl,” she shared. “The unapologetic woman is a very powerful person indeed.”
In recent years, Twain has done her best to speak out about body positivity. Last month, she teamed up with singer Jax to share a video of the two lip-syncing to Jax’s hit song “Victoria’s Secret,” Yahoo previously reported. The song calls out the infamous lingerie company and inspires women to love their bodies.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, help is available. RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline is here for survivors 24/7 with free, anonymous help. 800.656.HOPE (4673) and .
For anyone affected by abuse and needing support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto or text LOVEIS to 22522.
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