I'm cute - and God I hate that. Because that's not cool. I'm like your niece, and nobody wants to date their niece. It's the chubby cheeks. The whole reason people voted for me on American Idol is because I'm an everyday, normal girl.

You should know that I lead, not follow

And more so now, since having a family - I don't seek out any other acceptance.

I do cardio. I run. I strength-train using my own body weight. I don't like free weights, because I build muscle easily.

I'm proud of everything I achieved with 'Idol,' and away from 'Idol' also. It's just such a different show now to what it was when I was on it. I didn't even know it was a TV show until the third audition.

Just because I’m single and don’t date a lot, that doesn’t make me a lesbian.

The hardest thing about being in this business is just being able to be yourself. People act like there's this one set of rules to follow to be a pop star and I think, 'Well, you say I'm a pop star, so maybe that's not true.'