Demi Lovato is opening up about their journey to start a podcast, sharing that the new platform has provided a way to engage with fans about topics they’re passionate about from diet culture to gender identity.
The 28-year-old singer and host of 4D with Demi Lovato talked all about their new venture in a recent interview on Audacy Check In, sharing that they were motivated to launch a podcast because “I’m a very passionate person and I’m very outspoken about a lot of things that I believe in. And I feel like sometimes my message gets lost in translation, over text, whether it be over Instagram or Twitter or whatever”
Lovato continued, “I wanted to have conversations that show people, I really am invested in making this world a better place, making it a more loving place, a more compassionate place. And I feel like this platform provides me a stage to talk about the things that I’m passionate about in a way where you can see that it’s never coming out of malice, it’s never coming out of hate, it’s just coming out of a place of wanting to make the world a better place.”
Lovato went on to share that the recent controversy around critiques they made about an LA-based frozen yogurt shop called The Big Chill was part of their realization that certain messages weren’t coming across the way they meant them to.
“Because I was so passionate, I let my emotions get the best of me and it didn’t allow me to explain where I was coming from as easily as it would have been on a podcast,” the singer explained. “I just thought, you know, going forward I want to have conversations where people can see my face, they can hear my voice, and they can see that I’m still learning as well as the rest of the world. I’m [by] no means an expert on many, many things. But I’m willing to learn about it and I’m willing to continue to have conversations that either educate me or others on how to make this world a better place.”
Lovato also spoke to their recent coming out as nonbinary, sharing that it was the result of deep self-exploration and research that they’ve taken part in over the past year and a half. That too, they shared, is something that they feel is important to speak about on this new platform.
“Since I’ve learned about gender identity more and learning about being nonbinary or gender nonconforming, I’ve used this time to really explore what feels right to me. And after a year and a half of exploration, I realized it was time to let the world know that it feels weird to me when I get called a ‘she’ or a ‘her,'” Lovato said. “I understand that people might have a hard time adjusting to it because it is something new, but I want to encourage people to keep trying and that I understand that it’s a process to get used to.”
Lovato went on to admit, “Sometimes I still mess up myself,” and even spoke about some learning curves when it comes to gendered nicknames that friends use. “My friends have had a little harder time to get used to it actually, just because I think your friends are the ones that you’re more likely to be like, ‘bi***.’ And so, I’m like, look, you can still call me ‘bi***,'” she joked. “And there are times where I might have to choose. … I was in Texas and I was like, ‘does that make me a cowgirl or a cowboy?’ I was like, ‘I don’t wanna be a cow human so I’m just gonna go with cowgirl.'”
When it comes to family, Lovato said relatives have “done an incredible job” adjusting.
“I’ve noticed [older sister, Dallas] using ‘them’ and ‘they’ and it just, it really does warm my heart up that people are trying,” Lovato said. “I used to identify family as blood-related, and now my queer family has become more family than friends. And I feel like I now have two families. I have my blood relatives and then I have my queer family, and that family to me is the chosen family.”
Read more from Yahoo Life
Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Life’s newsletter.