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The day before demi LovaTo was due on seT To shoot FASHION’s august cover, she, like so many her age, decided to tweet up a selfie. it was a simple enough snap: The singer wore a beige v-neck sweater, a thin gold necklace and a friendly expression. The only thing missing in the pic was her usual maquillage: red lips, black liner and lightly dusted cheeks. her accompanying message—sent to her 14 million-plus follow-ers—was also pretty simple: “Ladies, be brave today. Take off your makeup and stop using those filters. we are beautiful!!!”

by the end of the day, legions of Lovatics—fans of the 20-year-old pop star—tweeted similar barefaced pictures of themselves back to her Twitter handle, @ddlovato. Charmed by the onslaught, Lovato took time to retweet and sort through the photos until she was forced to get back to working on her recently released fourth album, Demi. “so many gorgeous faces,” she wrote. “not enough battery on my phone!”

inspired bloggers went on to post stories with headings such as “The day demi owned Twitter,” and Us Weekly and mTv took to their respective websites to write about Lovato’s mini-crusade. adding to this, Tv shows such as ET Canada and etalk devoted air time to the pop star’s beauty statement. in what could have been considered one fleeting tweet, Lovato single-handedly turned the tables on all the tabloids that included her in their “stars without makeup” pages.

when Lovato does arrive on set for our cover shoot the next day, she’s scrolling through Twitter with no makeup on. before she faces the cameras, she asks the glam squad to stray from using a heavy hand but encourages experimenting on her hair (in the past, Lovato has dyed her mane a number of colours, including pink, blue and blonde). still fighting jet lag from a

swing of flights abroad (50 hours in 30 days), Lovato’s energy level doesn’t quite match that of the spar-ready trouper she was on The X Factor alongside simon Cowell (she returns to judge on the show this fall). a few sips of chamomile tea remedy the daze as she dives into the eye of her media storm.

“i didn’t tweet my unmade self so that i would have people comment about how pretty i looked without makeup,” she explains. “There is so much pressure from social media to share the right instagram photo and post the most beautiful selfie.” her half-sister, actress madison de La Garza (who played Juanita solis on Desperate Housewives), was the moti-vator. “she’s 12 years old and tells me she knows all of her right angles and which filters make her look best. i remember being in Grade 6 and wearing so much makeup and i didn’t even need it. i wore so much foundation and i didn’t even have any skin problems. i just want young girls to look at my shot and feel empowered.”

Like her little sister, Lovato grew up on a hollywood set. as a child, she was cast in Barney & Friends alongside selena Gomez (someone she still calls a friend), and went on to star in films like disney’s Camp Rock and a highly rated Tv series, Sonny with a Chance. but the pressure to be a faultless role model and carry a show worth millions while going through puberty was, understandably, tough. at the too-young age of 12, she began to struggle with eating disorders, and at 18, she cancelled her gig on the Jonas brothers world tour and left the set of Sonny with a Chance for good so that she could be properly treated for “emotional and physical illness.” rehab gave Lovato some clarity, as her stay in an illinois-based facil-ity came with a discovery: The singer was also suffering from

DemiGoddess

Distancing herself from her Disney princess past, pop star and X Factor judge Demi Lovato breaks into new territory.

By ELio iannacciPhotographed by cHRiS nicHoLLS

Styled by ZEina ESMaiL

jacket, $3,500, by catherine malan-drino. dress, $2,750, by givenchy at holt renfrew. ring, $680, by graziela gems.

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I want to live my life without filters. I don’t walk on eggshells. I say what

I want and I’m a very free spirit.103

bipolar disorder—a diagnosis that forced her to approach life differently than she did when she was employed by disney.

“i want to live my life without filters. i don’t walk on eggshells. i say what i want and i’m a very free spirit,” she says. Part of her self-investigation helped her build strong opinions about things that she feels affect her.

“i believe women should be treated equally. i believe people who are the same gender should be able to get married. There should be more magazines that don’t abuse airbrush tools. There should be more designers that won’t use unrealistic images of women in their campaigns. i know i can get criticism for saying those things, but i know what’s right. when i grew up in Texas, i may not have thought the same way about all of this, but it was because of my surroundings.”

Part of her transformation involves her looking at clothing and fashion in a different way. her recent tour wardrobe is stocked with her favourite label of the moment, Topshop, but she glances appreciatively at a clothing rack on set. “Topshop is my partner in crime for the tour,” she says, as she eyes a Givenchy dress being steamed. “my style is evolving with my sound. The more in tune i am with myself, the more i properly represent myself with my outside appearance. Good outfits can really boost your confidence.”

The ins and outs of her newfound transition can also be heard on Demi and her self-titled ebook. Certain tracks on the disc, such as “fire starter” and a duet with Cher Lloyd called

“really don’t Care,” are defiant, bass-heavy declarations. “i want to bring back girl power,” she says. The album, which has gone platinum in Canada, also contains an anti-ballad called

“shouldn’t Come back,” which veers away from adele’s much-copied broken-hearts-club catalogue; the slow jam is sung to a lover she never wants to see again.

“i’ve been through a lot, and the music reflects that. even the titles [of the songs] represent my journey so far. The disc begins with ‘heart attack’ on purpose,” she says of the chart-topping single. “it ends with ‘warrior’—i wanted the album to end on a strong note, since that is where i am right now.

“when i wrote that song, i definitely kept other women in

mind—women who went through the same thing i did,” she adds. “all the challenges of self-acceptance and the mistakes that come with tripping over your own insecurities are in there. if i had more time to write, i would have thousands of songs like that for my next album, because they are all in me.”

when it comes to what fellow singers are going through—women like Taylor swift, who is constantly being called out for her dating choices—Lovato sympathizes.

“it’s not her fault. it’s part of our lives, and everything becomes fair game,” she says. “for someone like Taylor swift, it doesn’t hurt that the guys she’s dated have been really attrac-tive and famous as well.” although Lovato has also had rela-tionships with well-known names—singer Joe Jonas and actor wilmer valderrama among them—few have tried to shame her in the same way.

“with me, it wasn’t relationships [the media] wrote about, it was breakdowns. i’ve taken all the scandals back and made them part of my story and my music,” she says. “i used to be a man-eater and a heartbreaker. it was oK to be that when i was young and experimenting, but i don’t like to be that anymore. when i was younger, guys wanted to jump into a serious rela-tionship really fast, and i had to slam on the brakes and say,

‘dude, i’m 17, chill out.’ now, [long-term] relationships make more sense to me.”

other things that Lovato has made peace with include a few old addictions. “my rebellion no longer comes in a bottle. it comes out in ink,” she says, showing off the tattoos on her wrists (which read “stay” and “strong” and cover old cut marks). “it also comes in hair dye and, some days, in too many red bulls in vegas. i also learned to not hate seeing myself in a magazine or on a Tv interview.”

Lovato wants people to know that she’s not magically cured of all her anxieties and issues, either. “There are nights before i go on stage when i feel bloated and nothing fits. i don’t want to go on because i’m not confident. sometimes i’d rather not leave my house,” she says. “i’ve had so many young girls meet me after my concerts and say, ‘you are so pretty, i want to look like you,’ and i wince. i’m working on it.”

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I used to be a man-eater and a heartbreaker. It was OK to

be that when I was young and experimenting, but I don’t like

to be that anymore.

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