Samantha Jade on social media trolls: "I've come so far from watching my mum die. I don't care anymore."
The last three years have been pretty spectacular ones for Samantha Jade. Since winning "The X Factor Australia" in 2012, she's enjoyed a string of hit singles and scored a "Logie Award" nomination for last year's INXS miniseries.
Not bad for a girl from Perth who grew up idolising Beyonce and Britney. But for all the career highs, she still has to deal with nasty internet trolls who'd like to send her crashing back to earth:
"They say i have a five head because i have a big forehead", Samantha, 28, tells "The Fix", "That was pretty hurtful. And "She's so small, she's like a midget". That's not a bad thing."
Definitely not. Samantha is adorably tiny in a Kylie Minogue sort of way, but public shaming can bring out our worst self-critic. It wasn't until she lost her mum to cancer last year that Samantha learned how to handle the slams with grace:
"I've come so far from watching my mum die", she says, "I don't care anymore. I really don't. It's such a good feeling to say that. When you lose somebody that close to you the way i lost my mum, where it's a quick process and you see somebody deteriorate and go down that downward spiral, it changes how you deal with things."
Samantha's mum was with her from the start of her career, which she launched at age 15 in the US. She released her first single "Step Up" in 2006.
When "Jive Records" (home of her pop idol, Britney Spears) dropped her in 2010 after several singles failed to set the charts ablaze, she returned to her hometown of Perth to work with her dad in a mining warehouse.
"To tell people i'd worked with Max Martin, Timbaland, Sean Garrett, Ryan Tedder, Diane Warren, everyone, and then to just come home with nothing was really really hard to face", she says of her lowest point.
When Samantha entered "The X Factor Australia" in 2012, she saw it as her "last shot" and it's one that hit its mark. She's even since earned bragging rights to say she knows how Kylie feels, having won that "Logie Award" nod for playing her.
Now, australian pop's good girl has gone sort of bad with her latest single, "Shake That". Though sexier and edgier than ever in the video (which features a guest appearance from rap superstar Pitbull, whom Samantha has yet to actually meet), she downplays the image change.
"This video is in the vein of "Firestarter", she says, referring to her 2013 hit, "It's just a little bit moodier", but she concedes, "The whole tone of the video is sexier."
And if the online haters are sharpening their knives, Samantha won't let herself bleed:
"I care what i think", she says, "I care what my family thinks. I care what my small circle thinks. But those people, i'm like, ok, it doesn't affect me like it used to. That was my mum, so thanks for that."
Samantha is ambassador for "Runway Weekend" and will be performing at their fashion and beauty expo in Sydney on august 30th 2015.
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