What Price Fame? The Katy Perry Therapy Session
With almost one million views in less than two days, Katy Perry’s recent ‘therapy session’ on YouTube, as part of her press for her upcoming Witness tour, is causing quite a stir.
During the session, Perry explains that she feels her persona (Katy Perry) has eclipsed both the happiness and emotional development of her ‘true’ self, Katheryn Hudson. During the session, she insisted to Marriage and Family Therapist, Dr. Siri Singh, that Katheryn was only in front of cameras, because of Katy.
The interview started out bleak — Katy was tearful about the years she claims she lost as part of her strict Christian upbringing. She painted a picture of a young woman deeply affected by the opinions of the public, even stopping several times to check a mirror, worried the tracks of her tears made her look like a ‘hot mess’.
During the session, she spoke about the ‘dork’, the ‘nerd’ who lived inside, rarely able to come out and play because she must always be the ‘witty’ and ‘glamorous’ Perry.
She discussed her emotional tumultuousness as it relates to romantic relationships and commented that it’s been, at times, difficult to just ‘give hugs’, as contact with strangers made her uneasy.
But as the session continued to unfold, we learned she is taking steps to repair her relationships with family, and has experienced more joy recently than she ever has.
You can watch the entire interview here.
I watched the therapy session because it was imperative for me to catch a glimpse of the ‘real’ Katy before I schlepped my six-year-old twins off to see her in the fall.
As I watched, it became increasingly clear that she puts pressure on herself to appear a certain way (via wigs, costumes, and elaborate sets), and feeling as though she fell short in some way affects her deeply.
Sporting a spunky pixie cut with pink highlights, she notes that, “some people don’t like my hair.” That’s not something you’d expect to hear from an international pop star, with eight Billboard number ones and over 99 million Twitter followers, currently embarking on her fourth tour.
Katy admits she’s sensitive to Internet trolls, criticism, and comments about her demeanor and appearance. And I feel she’s quite brave to share.
The session showed a fragile, caring young woman who, despite her massive fame, just ‘wants to be loved’.
Do we put too much pressure on our stars? We do. When someone gets a haircut, shaves, or tries out a different outfit, we’re quick to criticize. When they’re wearing shorts, we think they should be wearing pants. When they’re wearing pants, we think they should be wearing shorts. Their dresses are too long, too short, too revealing, or not revealing enough. That’s enough to drive anyone crazy.
We tend to think that every celeb out there is as cool as a cuke, that all the criticism we hurl towards them rolls like water off a duck’s back.
Katy’s therapy session taught me even more that celebrities are human, thrust into the public eye, and they must constantly deal with the opinions of others. They can’t cry, stub their toes, break down, or lose it even for a minute. Why? Because TMZ will show up and make sure the world knows about it.
Pressure to be perfect is no picnic. And pressure to behave and perform perfectly every time (remember Adele’s Grammy performance?) must be exhausting.
I’ve met a few musicians so far, and the ones who appear to have their ‘stuff’ together are the ones strong enough to step outside in their jeans and tees and step onstage in them as well, those who smile the same for you as they do for the camera, and those who believe, above all, in their song.
Music is far more about how it makes you feel than how the musician appears. And there are few things more striking than a microphone, a stool, and one amazing voice.
Do you remember what Michael Jackson wore when he sang Heal the World at the Super Bowl in 1993? Me neither.
Stay strong, Katy. Love yourself, and the world will continue to love you back.
