Demi Lovato has spoken up about the realities of child stardom. The singer, 33, spoke with fellow former child actor Keke Palmer about life in the spotlight.
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LOS ANGELES — Singer-songwriter Demi Lovato has spoken up about the realities of child stardom. The singer, 33, spoke with fellow former child actor Keke Palmer about life in the spotlight.
Demi Lovato candidly discussed rising to fame alongside Disney Channel peers Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus, reports ‘People’ magazine.
Keke Palmer, 32, asked the singer on her podcast, ‘Baby, This Is Keke Palmer’ about navigating a situation where the network was “always pitting” the stars against each other, trying to crown “the number one girl”.
As per ‘People’, Demi Lovato joined Disney Channel in 2007 with the TV-short series As the Bell Rings, as Cyrus began starring in Hannah Montana (2006-2011) and Gomez on Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012).
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Demi Lovato, who uses she/they pronouns, prefaced her answer by explaining that she and Gomez were friends prior to their time on Disney Channel, “We actually were on Barney together, and so I felt this safety when I came into the Disney Channel having a built-in friendship there already”.
She added that she was so “grateful” at the time and “will always be grateful for the friendship that I have and continue to have" with Selena Gomez.
As she continued, the Here We Go Again singer confessed that it was “challenging” to deal with comparisons to Cyrus and Gomez. “You naturally have insecurities at a young age”, Demi Lovato said. “So you start comparing yourself to other people. But one thing my mom instilled in me was, ‘There’s room for everyone. It’s not a competition’. That’s what I really stuck by. That’s what kind of got me through that period. I was always rooting for everybody”.
After they departed Disney Channel, the two stars went on to have successful pop music careers, with each applauding one another’s work. More recently, in September 2025, Lovato complimented Gomez and her husband, Benny Blanco’s latest album, I Said I Love You First, saying they did a “really, really great job”.