Shania Twain hasn’t always enjoyed feeling like a woman.
The singer, 59, talked about dealing with body image issues since she was a kid in an interview with Us Weekly published Wednesday
“I was always insecure about my body,” she shared. “As a female, throughout my youth [I was] touched inappropriately so many times [and] I was in abusive situations where you hate being a woman. I hated being a girl.”
The “Any Man of Mine” singer recalled that when she was younger she told her mom her career goal.
“My mother goes, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and I said, ‘A bodybuilder.’”
“I wanted to be a big, strong man that nobody was going to f–k around with,” she explained. “No one was going to touch my arm or my ass or anything unless I was OK with it.”
Twain continued, “I was hiding all through my teens. I hated having boobs, I hated having hips. I think a lot of that was also because a lot of the models when I was a kid were very, very thin. That was a sign of elegance and feminine beauty to me.”
The Grammy Award winner has claimed that she suffered alleged sexual abuse from her stepfather as a child.
In her 2022 Netflix documentary, “Not Just a Girl,” Twain discussed her upbringing and home as “violent,” and recalled that at times she lacked food and electricity, and in her 20s, she lost her mother and stepfather, forcing her to step into a parenting role for her siblings.
“I hid myself, and I would flatten my boobs. I would wear bras that were too small for me, and I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me,” she told the Sunday Times in Dec. 2022. “Make it easier to go unnoticed. Because, oh my gosh, it was terrible — you didn’t want to be a girl in my house.”
In her Us Weekly interview, Twain revealed when she overcame her body image struggles.
“Once I got behind the camera and started looking at clothes and fashion, I was like, ‘Wow, I’m actually a woman after all, and I think I might like it,’” she said. “When I wrote “Man, I Feel Like a Woman!,” it was an absolute celebration [of that]. And I felt empowered behind the camera. I was like, ‘They can’t grab me. I’m safe.’”
Twain was also asked what advice she’d give to others who have lack body confidence.
“I wish I’d come to this so much earlier, but I think referencing yourself to others is dangerous,” she explained. “For me, walking on the beach in a bathing suit is like, ‘What was I waiting for?’ Of course I don’t have the body I imagined — because my image of the perfect body is a supermodel with no cellulite, perfect proportions and a beautiful stride.”
“This is just not me. You can wish a lot of time away ignoring what you actually look like. Just get real with yourself,” Twain added.
