Being an actress doesn't make you popular in school.
I wasn't a kid when I came out. Soulja Boy was 16. I'm saying that when he came out he was a kid so it was naturally a show for him. It's not about the music right away. It's a show for him. Not that he's not putting enough effort into his music, but how much effort can a 16 year old put into his music because as you mature and get older even the songs he's doing now has evolved and he's looking back.
If I could sell 500 million records every time, it would be great. But I've also had the luxury experience of having it when I was a teenager, in a very kind of model version of it.
When I was 14, I was on the cover of 'Bop' and 'Tiger Beat.' Every two months, I would see a new kid's face, and I remember saying, 'This is not something that lasts very long.'
All that stuff - 'teen idol' - that wasn't me.
I was a teen idol and that has a short shelf life.
When I was a teen idol, I was so goddamn pretty I wouldn't have taken myself seriously.
Being a teen idol or being a heartthrob on all the magazines, with Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett, and Scott Baio - it was embarrassing! I never understood it. I mean, why me? I never really got it.
When I was 17 I sent a picture up to an agency, and within a week I was in The Sun five days in a row.
I was a teenage idol, but not the one that the girls would put up on their walls, like Fabian and Frankie Avalon. I was more cerebral, like a Roy Orbison or a Buddy Holly. I was one of the few who could write songs.
I don't want to just be a teenage star. I want to be known by parents, and I want them to go, 'Oh I love that song; he's really good for his age. My daughter loves him, but I love him, too.'
Most young American actors feel like teenagers.
When I was 15 I became a full-time singer in a band. At 18 I made my first record.
You cannot make a teenage idol.
If there's anything more mortifying than being famous at 14, it's being washed up right after.
