Demi Lovato felt ‘liberated’ when she cut her hair short after ‘ignoring’ her true self

Demi Lovato says she felt ‘liberated’ when she cut her hair short because of how it helped her shed ‘gender and sexuality norms’ she was raised with as a ‘Christian in the South.’

The Dancing With The Devil songstress, 28, talked about embracing her true self and putting her needs first while appearing on the Drew Barrymore Show on Tuesday. 

There, the star explained how she used to be so ‘preoccupied trying to be a sexy feminine pop star that I just ignored like who I am.’   

Demi wowed while in studio with Drew, rocking a patterned suit and her short, black pixie cut.

She told the hostess: ‘I was trying something that didn’t work for me now I’m doing something that is working for me and instead of feeling judged by everyone I’m just going to say, “Look your opinion about me doesn’t matter to me. I’m doing what I need to do for myself and my wellness, my well-being.”

‘I’m putting myself first and in front of my career and that’s something I never did before because I was so preoccupied trying to be a sexy feminine pop star that I just ignored like who I am. 

‘I don’t know, I cut my hair because I just wanted to free myself of all of the gender and sexuality norms that were placed on me as a Christian in the south,’ Demi, who recently came out as pansexual, explained.

‘And when I cut my hair I felt so liberated because I wasn’t subscribing to an ideal or belief placed upon me to be something that I’m not. And now that I’m owning who I am, I feel the happiest I’ve ever felt and that’s because I’m being honest.

‘Secrets keep you sick, I’ve heard that a million times and I fully believe it. Now there’s nothing, there’s no secrets for the world to find out. Like I just put it out there and I’m like, “Hey this is me.”

While Demi’s reached a new era of openness, channeling  her deepest traumas is her new YouTube docuseries Demi Lovato: Dancing With The Devil, she also said she’s learning how to set healthy boundaries with the world.

‘It’s never too late to set a boundary with the world and I learned that,’ she told Drew. 

‘And I’ve continued to set boundaries where I know it seems like I’ve talked a lot about my life but I didn’t talk about everything and that’s where my boundary is. 

‘There’s things that I’ll never share with the world because no one could benefit from them and that’s okay. That’s for me and my treatment team.’

Demi recently admitted how overwhelming it was for her to watch her new doc, which delves into her tumultuous personal life in the past few years, including her nearly fatal 2018 overdose.

Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallow, she said: ‘I had a physical reaction the first time that I watched it. Like — anxiety attack,’ she said.

‘But it’s been good and a part of telling my story is taking ownership and just owning my truth,’ she continued. ‘No matter what people say when they watch it, it doesn’t matter… I’m standing in such truth that nothing that anyone can say can shake me.’

Jimmy asked the pop superstar if it was ‘odd’ to share so much of her life with complete strangers.

‘I had to work through a lot of things before I actually told the story on camera,’ she replied. ‘But I’ve been working on myself and putting in a lot of work behind the scenes so that when it was time to put it on camera, I felt completely secure to tell my story.’

As difficult as it was to open up about her personal struggles and issues with drug abuse, she thought the whole process helped her recovery.

‘It’s been really cathartic, really really therapeutic,’ she said.