Katy Perry didn't hold anything back about her mental health journey in a new interview.
Speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music on Thursday, Perry, who is expecting her first child, candidly spoke about her ongoing battle with depression and the sexism she deals with on Twitter.
Revealing more about her new album "Smile," due August 28, the 35-year-old singer admitted, "Smile is a real representation to me, the record is a representation that I got through it and overcame to the other side."
MORE: Pregnant Katy Perry shares sneak peek inside baby's nurseryBy "it," she means her mental health struggles. Perry continued, "I just couldn't get out of bed for weeks and became clinically depressed and had to get on medication for the first time in my life, and I was so ashamed of it. I was like, 'I'm Katy Perry. I wrote 'Firework.' I'm on medication. This is f***** up.'"
The "Roar" singer also touched upon how much harder women have it in the music industry thanks to social media.
"Some of it comes from the audience. They like to pit us against each other," she noted, adding that female artists are constantly being compared to each other. "It's like [on my Twitter,] 'Who's better than who? Who's skinnier than who? Who's sold more number ones than who? Who's doing better this year than who? Who made this much more than who?'"
MORE: Katy Perry reveals what she hopes her daughter inherits from her
That is why she says women deserve more credit, which inspired her to write the song "What Makes a Woman" and express her "appreciation" for them.
"Women are able to create a life and live and deal with all this stuff and give birth to a watermelon," Perry said. "They are not just one thing. They are so malleable and so elastic."
