JoJo Was Taking Injections to Lose Weight at 17
When JoJo was only 13 years old, she became the youngest ever solo artist to have a #1 song on Billboard’s pop songs chart in the US.
For the next few years, even though JoJo was selling millions of albums, behind the scenes her record label was telling her she needed to slim down, or else they wouldn’t keep putting out her music.
She talked all about it in an issue of Lenny Letter that came out today:
“When I turned seventeen, that’s when people started talking to me about my weight. I had never really thought about the way I looked. It made me extremely self-conscious honestly. It made me question everything I ate and drank. I was on injections called HCG [to lose weight], and I couldn’t believe they wanted me to take such extreme measures. they told me my album wouldn’t come out unless I looked right. To them that meant me losing a significant amount of weight — mind you, I’ve never been above a size four. It really, really messed with my mind.”
Obviously.
Being a teenager is hard enough, having a room full of adults tell you that you need to look like a walking stick or nobody will like you is just horrifying.
She continued:
“I was sat down in a room with the president of the label and he said, ‘You know, we’re just thinking of your health. We want you to look and feel healthy and be your best.’ I put my hand up to silence him. I said, ‘Let me stop you right there. I’m the picture of health. I live a balanced life. I’m active, I eat what I want, I get my vegetables in. Don’t try to make this about my health, because you know damn well this isn’t about my health. This is about me looking the way that you think a pop star is supposed to look.’ He didn’t have anything to say in response to that.”
Check out the rest of JoJo’s interview here and make a note to call your parents to thank them for not letting you become a baby pop star.
[H/T Lenny Letter]
