JoJo Admits the 'Confusion' of the Music Industry Led Her to Writing a Memoir at Age 33: 'I Wanted to Make Sense of It'

JoJo is opening up about starting out in the music industry at a young age.

The "Too Little, Too Late" singer, 33, shot to stardom when she scored her first record deal at age 12. However, the experiences she endured seemingly propelled her to adulthood in a short amount of time.

"Realizing that in this year, my 33rd year, that it’ll be 20 years since my first album. Most people my age haven’t been doing one thing for 20 years, haven’t been in a career for 20 years," she explained in a recent interview. "So I think the origin for it is that, I spent so much of my life, the majority of my life, feeling so confused and feeling like, 'What am I doing, what does this mean, what has been happening?'"

For JoJo, writing about the past helped her move toward her future. "I feel like I’ve been just moved around and there was a lot of confusion. So I think I wanted to make sense of it by putting it down on paper. I realized a lot of themes as I was writing this, things that kept recurring over and over again in my life, maybe things I was blind to at the time," the "Baby It's You" artist noted.

The experience was "cathartic" for the singer, as it was "an exercise in getting over my fear of being seen, of putting myself out there," she continued. "'Is my story interesting enough? Am I capable of telling it?' And then knowing that I needed to break through any of those roadblocks that I put before myself."

One of the most interesting revelations of the juicy read is that despite her success, JoJo was never fully confident in the music she was releasing. "Well, it’s a little nerve-racking to share how unsure I felt for a lot of my career," the singer admitted.

"I felt very convicted in certain areas but felt I didn’t have the support to fight for what it is that I felt in my heart, and then questioning, is what’s in my heart what I should go for or do I listen to the opinions of those who have had a lot of success over and over again?" JoJo added. "I think when something worked in a really big way at a very young age, and you weren’t sure about that, that just set the tone for me. Like, other people know better. So, it’s been a confusing journey since then, because yeah, I didn’t love my first single for the first few months of it."

When the Boston native heard the reactions of her peers, her attitude began to change. "Then when other people started loving it, I was like, 'OK so I’m wrong and I can find something to like about this.' Eventually, I did love it and I’m grateful for it and I have a great time with it and I connect to it a lot more, because I’ve gone through a lot of s---," she added.

Variety conducted the interview with JoJo.