00:00Also, congrats on meeting the Backstreet Boys. I saw that video.
00:04Oh. My. Gosh.
00:07My heart can't, will never recover.
00:16What's up, guys? It's Emily Curl here with Refinery29,
00:19and I'm so excited because I'm next to Lauren Alaina.
00:21Lauren, welcome.
00:22Hi.
00:22First off, I just want to say congrats on your C&T award.
00:25That is so exciting.
00:26Thank you. I was so happy. I'm still so happy.
00:29You've had such a successful career.
00:31What is the one moment, if you could pinpoint one moment, that you're most proud of?
00:35Probably when Road Less Traveled went number one.
00:38It was my first number one.
00:39I had a few songs that I'd put out, and it's very difficult for females on country radio.
00:44To get the call and to hear that my song was number one on the charts
00:49was one of the most breathtaking moments of my life.
00:52I will never, ever forget it.
00:54I cried like a baby.
00:55How would you describe that feeling?
00:56Road is just a really personal song for me.
00:58It's about my eating disorder and kind of my recovery and all of that.
01:02Wow, I did not know that.
01:03Yeah, I had an eating disorder for six years.
01:05The fact that that song went number one, and I wrote it about such a personal time in my life,
01:11it's just, it's amazing.
01:13I said if I never had another song on the radio, I was glad that that was the one.
01:16Women are real, and they're going to go through struggles.
01:18When you have been through something, and you maybe go back to like, and have a bad day,
01:22how do you bring yourself out of that?
01:23How do you stay grounded, and do you have some sort of self-care routine that you kind
01:27of do to take care of yourself?
01:28Well, it's been really hard for me.
01:30Obviously, I had an eating disorder when I went on Idol, and when I was on Idol, people
01:35teased me about my weight online a lot, and so obviously when you're already insecure about
01:39something, that like makes it ten times worse.
01:42When you're a teenager, that's when you start learning how to love yourself, and I did that
01:46on national television, and I was not very successful at the loving part.
01:50It's not like there's some magic button that you press, and then all of a sudden you're
01:53confident.
01:54It's not perfect, but I'm not unhealthy about it anymore, and I try to improve myself in
01:59a positive way.
02:00I wake up with the uglies we all do.
02:02We all have days where we wake up and our hair looks crazy, and we feel like our jeans
02:06look too tight.
02:07It's a part of being a person, and being a woman.
02:09I don't know what it's like to be a man, but I know what it's like to be a woman,
02:12and sometimes
02:14it's rough.
02:15As women, too, we're like taught to be so hard on ourselves, and it's something that
02:18I feel like that we've had to carry because we are women.
02:20Especially now with social media, where you see these women who have been photoshopped.
02:26I, unfortunately, I am one of the women that have been photoshopped, and I'm like, no, let's
02:32not do this.
02:32It tricks everyone else into thinking that you have to look this certain way, and like,
02:37no one actually looks like that, and if they do, they probably need to eat a cheeseburger.
02:40They're probably sad.
02:41We just have to learn how to love our bodies, whatever size, shape that is.
02:44Some people are perfect as a zero, and some people are perfect as a 14.
02:48Talking about social media, too, I imagine it's very different because you are in the
02:51public eye.
02:52How do you kind of navigate that territory?
02:54At the end of the day, that is your page.
02:56I don't know why we let people talk bad about us on our pages.
03:00Delete.
03:01I delete mean people.
03:02Get off my, bye, Felicia.
03:04This is my page.
03:06Take your hate somewhere else.
03:07I feel powerful in that because I used to see those comments and cry, and now I'm like,
03:12bye.
03:13Get them out of there.
03:14You just have to move them away because social media is a really beautiful thing.
03:17It is.
03:17It is such a great way to connect with people on a more personal level.
03:21I have a direct line of communication with my fans, and I love that, but the haters, bye.
03:28So if you could recommend three country music songs to our audience that they had to listen
03:32to, any songs, what would it be?
03:33Man, I feel like a woman.
03:35Yeah, she is.
03:36I feel like everybody knows that song, though.
03:37I'm a big fan of Morgan Wallen, and he has this song called A Little Rain.
03:42It is country as country can be.
03:44And then how about Three by Lauren Alaina?
03:48Yes.
03:49Do you like how I just dropped myself in there?
03:51No, I love it.
03:51Plug it in, baby.
03:52It's so lame of me, but I don't care.
03:53Check it out.
03:54What's one piece of advice that has stuck with you that you think every woman should
03:57hear?
03:58Dolly Parton said to me just to remember that you don't have to share every part of yourself
04:03with the world.
04:04That you should reserve parts of yourself for yourself and for your close friends and family.
04:09I think it's important to have a little intimacy within yourself.
04:12You don't always have to put on a show for everyone else.
04:14It's important to have some things for yourself.
04:17Lauren and Alaina, thank you so much for being here with Refinery29, and hope you have a great
04:20rest of your weekend.
04:21Thank you so much.
04:22Bye, guys.
