I think fame is such a scary thing, and it's something I can never understand. It's terrifying, but it's the only way I get to do what I love every day, you know?
— Alessia Cara
I see songs in colors; I see days of the week. Each day of the week I relate to a gender, and it's very weird. I can taste words sometimes. It's very strange.
I just dress how I wanna dress. Not to say that I don't care about how I dress or that I'm a slob or anything like that... I just don't have to worry about the outside opinions of what people are saying.
Real social situations are taking a back seat to social media.
I just try to tell my stories in a way that is still light-hearted and fun to listen to. I'm not trying to bash you over the head with what I have to say.
I was always singing around the house, even when I was two years old.
My family is from the south of Italy in this little place called Calabria. It's a big part of my family, the Italian culture. I grew up around it. My parents speak Italian, and I speak Italian.
As a female and someone who's young, I'm still coming into my own, and I still have struggles. I know how I look; I know what my flaws are - I don't need anybody to tell me that.
Both my parents are Italian. My mom was born and raised in Italy. My dad was born in Canada, but then they moved to Italy.
I'm unpolished, I guess.
I really want to speak for young women, especially because I feel like we're constantly brainwashed in everyday life.
That's all I ever wanted to do: put out music from the heart that people could relate to.
It's not that I don't care how I look, but I'd rather turn the attention to the music as much as possible.
It's important to show that there's different ways of doing things. Some people like to be glamorous, and that's perfectly fine, and that's amazing. If I were that style, then I would do that. I'd wear heels every day, and I'd strut around in a dress, but that's not me.
Being in the public eye, you're always worried about what angle people are going to take pictures of you at. I don't really care anymore.
Frank Ocean would be incredible; I'd love to be a sponge and absorb everything he says. Every song he puts out, I'm like, 'Why didn't I think of this?'
Cats are evil, and they hate me.
It's so cool though when I see thirty-year-old men that are coming in to watch my shows. It's like, 'You really like my music? Like a teenage girl, you relate to it?' It just proves how much people are alike.
I don't think a lot of artists have the freedom that I have when it comes to dressing in general.
I love experimenting with clothes for photo shoots, but when I'm onstage, I want to show people that there are other options. You can just be yourself and still make good music.
People want to create something bigger for themselves, and making up drama that isn't there gives people the impression that they have haters. It's all for attention so it looks like they are important.
I'm a fan of real singers. I just gravitate towards that.
When I was really young, I was convinced I wanted to be a visual artist. I would paint and draw and make crafts.
Beauty comes in all forms. It's not just external; it's internal as well.
For some reason, I'm constantly attacked on social media in terms of how I dress. I've never understood that. That's been very hard.
I was one of those weird kids who didn't really speak or smile. I remember my teachers would call home and ask if everything was fine at home because I would never smile. Then I got into this phase, from maybe fourth to eighth grade, where my personality just did a 180.
I'm definitely not a supermodel, a thousand per cent.
Often, as teens, we think we know everything, but actually we're just trying to figure life out, and we don't know much at all.
Talent is talent, but fashion is separate, and it shouldn't be used to judge me as a singer.
I just want to keep my normal life for as long as possible.
All I'm really good at is making music and singing and doing this. I'm not good at fashion, so I don't see a point in trying to be good at that.
In late elementary school, early high school, I started losing my hair in chunks in the shower. It was one of the scariest things. It got to the point where it was visibly gone.
As a young girl, I'm always going to have to work a bit harder to prove myself; that's just reality. But having to work harder makes me feel like girls are stronger, too.
We all act like we know everything in life, but nobody really does. That's what I want people to realize. For me, I know that I'm the same person. Nothing has changed. My family and friends know that.
The biggest critics are in the comments online. People are so judgmental of me. It's like, 'Why is she wearing this?' or 'Why isn't she wearing that?' or 'Why does she talk like that?' That's the worst because they're judging for no reason.
I'm just glad that there's some diversity in the music industry with women so people know that you can be literally anything and still be able to make it.
It's good to have a reminder that we can love ourselves and be beautiful even though we don't really fit into certain standards of what beauty may be.
I always did music privately as a hobby, I think partly because I was nervous to do it in front of other people.
Canada is a really big melting pot of cultures, so we ended up with a giant mosaic of different music.
I grew up in this little city called Brampton. It's pretty suburban - there's not a lot going on. In my neighbourhood, specifically, there weren't a lot of other kids so I would just spend a lot of time inside.
I think the world is very closed-minded sometimes and very dated. We need to start opening our minds.
I'm really in touch with my Italian roots. My mom's whole side of the family is there.
I had a fairly regular childhood. I was a pretty boring kid. I didn't do much. I was always thinking, but I didn't really say a lot.
I've never hosted a party in my life, not even my own birthday party. I'd feel really uncomfortable saying, 'Hey everybody, let's celebrate me!' But I'm not antisocial. I don't hate people.
I remember making a 'thank you' video when one of my videos got to 50 views!
I don't put the focus on things that don't matter.
It took me a while to really believe in myself or feel determined about it, but then once I realized that it's possible for anyone, and these people who are singers started off very normal... I realized that it was not that hard to do.
I like to mimic accents. I don't even know if that's a talent. That's just a weird thing that I do.
I always find power in struggles. You end up a lot happier that way.
When I was eight, I told my best friend I got a Hilary Duff autograph, but I just signed it myself.
