When Jojo released her first single, “Leave (Get Out),” back in 2013, she was quickly skyrocketed into the spotlight. At just 13 years old, the singer made history as the youngest solo artist to earn a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Now, the musician has opened up about the downsides of fame, the immense amount of pressure that came with being a star at such a young age and her relationship with her record label, Blackground Records.

During a new interview with Uproxx, the 29-year-old claimed that her record label pressured her to lose weight.

“When I was 18 I remember being sat down in the Blackground office and the president of the label being like, ‘We just want you to look as healthy as possible.’ And I was like, ‘I’m actually the picture of health. I look like a healthy girl who eats and is active. I don’t think this is about my health. I think that you want me to be really skinny.’ He’s like, ‘No, I wouldn’t say that,'” Jojo shared. “I ended up working with a nutritionist who had me on a 500-calorie diet a day. I was taking these injections that make you have no appetite. I was like, ‘Let me see how thin I could become because maybe then they will put out an album. Maybe I’m so disgusting that nobody wants to see me in the video and they can’t even look at me.’ That’s really what I thought.”

The “Too Little Too Late” songstress admitted that she started to turn to drugs and alcohol as a way to feel “pretty” and “worthy.”

“There were definitely nights that I stumbled out of clubs and that I blacked out. I was just completely reckless, did not care. I needed to be buzzed to feel okay,” the former child star explained. “I would go to the edge, stand on my tiptoes on the edge and then come back. I should be dead.”

In 2009, Jojo decided to take legal action against her record label, and she was released from her contract.

“I didn’t get any money. I didn’t get any damages or anything like that. I just walked away being able to sign another record contract. I was like, ‘Let’s go!’ I was free,” she revealed.

Jojo went on to re-record her first two albums, launch her own record label through a partnership with Warner Records and is now gearing up to drop a new LP, called Good to Know.

“This journey has been a journey of learning how to love myself,” she concluded. “I feel really lucky, really, really grateful for the longevity that I have and for the resilience that I do have. But I work on it every day. I want to create a life for myself and I want to create a legacy.”

If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Youth Crisis Hotline at 1-800-448-4663.

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