Before she was a member of an award-winning girl group, Perrie Edwards auditioned for U.K.’s The X Factor in 2011 as a solo artist. She was then joined by Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall and Jesy Nelson (who has since departed from the group) to form Little Mix!
Together, Perrie and her bandmates went on to win season 8 of the reality singing competition and have since released six studio albums — DNA, Salute, Get Weird, Glory Days, LM5 and Confetti. Following her success on the show, Perrie and the rest of Little Mix started their own reality TV series — Little Mix: The Search which premiered in the U.K. in September 2020 — to find the next best band.
“I definitely always wanted to be a singer and a performer. I think I got it from my parents because my dad’s a singer and my mom’s a singer, so it kind of runs in the family and I just thought it was normal,” Perrie told Teen Vogue in 2013. “But, I never really had the confidence to do it until my mom made me go on the show. I’m glad for my mom making me do The X Factor.”
The “Wings” songstress has also been open about her ongoing battle with anxiety throughout her time in the spotlight.
“At first, I never wanted to open up about it. When it first started happening to me, it felt like it had never happened to anyone before. I can’t explain it,” Perrie recalled while chatting with Glamour U.K. in May 2019. “It was almost like I didn’t know what was happening when I was going through the physical attacks and panic attacks. I’ve always had anxiety, I just don’t think it’s ever been triggered in a way where it’s become a physical attack so when it first started happening to me, it was so scary because I didn’t know what was going on.”
She continued, “The reason I never wanted to speak about it before was because every time someone said, ‘I’ve got a bit of anxiety,’ it would trigger it and then it would happen. It was almost like speaking about it made it come out; this devil I was terrified of. Now I’ve got to a place where I’m trying to not let it take over my life, so now when I talk about it openly, I’m quite cool about it because I know I’m fine.”
Aside from her music, fans also know Perrie from her high-profile relationship with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, whom she started dating publicly in January 2017. The couple announced in May 2021 that they were expecting their first baby together. “So happy to be on this wild journey with my soulmate,” Perrie announced via Instagram at the time.
Scroll though our gallery to see the Little Mix songstress’ total transformation over the years.
Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.
