Katy Perry

Be yourself and you can be anything... based on figuring out who you are. ~Katy Perry

Popsinger, songwriter, businesswoman, actress, Billboard’s Woman of the Year 2012, Kid’s Choice Award for Favorite Female Singer 2013, Katy Perry says it’s not fame that makes her happy.

“It’s about having a good support system, good friends with good morals, and concentrating on supporting yourself and strengthening yourself.”

“When I am home, taking time off, I like to eat well, hike with my girlfriends and do things that really serve me well. Be kind to yourself. Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she says, “I think to have a positive outlook on life means you are actually living. You are winning the life goal. Be yourself and you can be anything, it’s based on figuring out who you are.”

“Who we are isn’t determined by the place we started out at. We can’t control how we were born or what we were born into, but we can always change that. I grew up in a very strict, religious household, but what I was able to take away from that was that my moral compass is very valuable, and to stay in tune with it,” she reveals. “Integrity and respect are important characteristics to adopt. I got to kind of sift out the other stuff that I didn’t really care for early on.”

Perry was a rebellious teenager. “When I was growing up, anything my parents said I couldn’t do, I actually wanted to do more, funny enough. So I always had to hide my love for the Smurfs and for Madonna. Can you imagine? Madonna and The Smurfs as taboo?”

On following her dreams, Perry shares, “I knew I wanted to be a performer when I was nine years old. I just had too much energy, which I wish I still had today. I was bouncing off the walls like a monkey, when I was a kid, I really was! And I remember people going, ‘Oh God. This kid has so much energy,’ I was just such a showoff, but that’s what got me here.”

She continues, “I have an older sister. I am a middle child, I have a younger brother, and with older sisters of course, if you have an older sibling you are kind of in

competition with them. You want to be like them, you want to wear their clothes or what have you. So my sister came home from spending a couple of weeks with her godparents during the summer, and she brought home a demo, because they had a recording studio in the basement.”

“I wanted a demo as well when I was nine. And so I practiced her demo, and then I performed it for my mother, and eventually she [mother] said, ‘Oh, you are the one that needs the singing lessons.’ So it was like I found my magic trick.” Luckily, this little episode didn’t foster any resentment between her and her sister. “There’s no more competition between my sister any more, she’s the closest person to me in the world.”

And just as Perry is a role model for many young girls, she too had female role models. “I wasn’t allowed to watch much [TV] growing up. My parents were particularly strange about certain things and because I grew up in a very strict religious household, a lot of things were monitored,” she reveals. “But as far as my own heroes, I like Wonder Woman. And I like Gwen Stefani and Angelina Jolie and Lara Croft.”

Perry is quite fond of acting too. “I really enjoy playing the opposite of what you would expect in live action films. I have done a couple of little TV spots and really like playing characters, self-deprecating characters,” she states. “My heroes are like Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Kristin Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, those are all of my favorite types of actresses. So I would like to follow in that type of work.”

But she also loved playing Smurfette in Smurfs 2, in theaters now. “Life can never be too cartoonish. I like to exaggerate and be larger than life when it’s appropriate for stage and for film and for animation. I love doing animation work because I can go in my pajamas, with no makeup, no lashes. And there’s always like a snack area, which is horrible. Horrible, horrible! But it’s fun, really fun to do animation.”