Lauren Alaina is is no longer afraid for people to know all of the details of her life, even the unpleasant ones. The 26-year-old, whose personal Sitting Pretty on Top of the World album was just released, is also releasing her new book, Getting Good at Being You: Learning to Love Who God Made You to Be, in November. In it, she talks about several of her own struggles, and how she overcame them, including battling an eating disorder while on American Idol, after she got a taste of downside of fame.
“I ended up losing probably 45 to 50 pounds… from the beginning of American Idol to the end of the American Idol tour,” Alaina tells Entertainment Tonight. “It got pretty bad.”
Alaina was ill-prepared for how cruel people could be, especially online, until she experienced it first-hand.
“I was on national television at 15,” Alaina reflects. “People called me fat; there was a blog that called me ‘Miss Piggy,’ and put a pig snout on my face … [People] can be really cruel, and I didn’t have tools to deal with that.”
Alaina determined to lose the weight quickly, resorting to bulimia to shed pounds, until it started affecting her voice.
“They told me that if I didn’t stop, I would never sing again, and I didn’t want that,” Alaina recalls. “That was a wake-up call for me, and it took me a few years even after that to really get into a better place. And I still go check in with the therapist every once in a while, specifically for an eating disorder.”
“But I’m healthy now, and I got some curves and I’m proud of ’em!” she adds.
Alaina also shares details of her break-ups, to both her former fiancé, Alex Hopkins, and later to comedian John Crist, both in her upcoming book and in Sitting Pretty on Top of the World. For Alaina, she never considered not sharing the personal details of her life.
“I think that the way that I’ve always dealt with what I’m going through and the way that I communicate my feelings is through my music,” Alaina tells Everything Nash. “And these songs were the songs about my life. Regardless of who the other character is or what actually happened, these songs helped me process it and helped me work through the emotions of going through two really crazy breakups. And then trying to date again and figuring out what that looks like and trying to be a woman and dealing with all of these emotions.”
Sitting Pretty on Top of the World includes a duet with Trisha Yearwood on “Getting Good,” as well as a collaboration with Jon Pardi, on “Getting Over Him,” which is currently in the Top 40. Sitting Pretty on Top of the World, as well as pre-orders for Getting Good at Being You: Learning to Love Who God Made You to Be, are both available on Alaina’s website.
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