My support group - my mom, my dad, my sisters, my brothers-in-law, my immediate nieces and nephews, my immediate family like Aunt Donna - I know I can trust them. Most of the other people...they never called me before, they never said "I love you" before, they never wanted to take a picture with me at family reunions. It's like, don't do it now...You win the lottery and all of a sudden everybody's your best friend.

We see new male artists have their first single reach No. 1 on the charts, but it generally takes a female a lot longer to build momentum.

My mom had a job, and she also took care of us, and she also took care of Dad - I always saw her pulling triple duty, doing more than I ever felt like she needed to. I made a promise to myself that it would be more of a team effort in my family someday. And because of that, I became more independent.

[Carnival Ride] is part of a line from my favorite song on the album, "Wheel of the World." It sums up everything that's happened to me. It's nuts to think of where I was a couple of years ago.

I did most of my volunteer work when I was in college because I knew of more ways to get involved. In high school, we'd do things like, there was a homeless shelter near our hometown and our church group decorated one of the rooms. In college, I was in a sorority, and we did a lot of things, like pick up trash on the highway.

I'm really lucky in the sense that my hair holds curl awesomely well. It looks the same at 10 P.M. as it does at 10 A.M. One of my favorite products is Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray. I can get a lot of volume with it. I'm from the South - I like big hair.

I'm always thirsty when I wake up, so I guzzle a bottle of Smart water before I scramble tofu with onions, peppers and spinach and top it with salsa. I've been a vegetarian for years, but I recently became vegan.