Caitlin Crosby: Pop With a Conscience

Posted Friday 06 March 12:55 PM By: Brooke Tarnoff

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You've likely never heard the name Caitlin Crosby - but you won't be out of the loop for long. The L.A.-based singer-songwriter is poised to hit it big when her self-titled debut arrives in stores on May 19. Though her CD release is still over two months off, Caitlin is no industry newcomer. The video for her single 'Still Have My Heart' betrays the connections of a veteran Hollywood professional, with appearances by actors including Zachary Levi ('Chuck') and Jesse Spencer ('House'). Her famous pals come courtesy of an entertainment industry upbringing, as the daughter of a talent manager and a model, with a modest acting resume of her own. The pressures of growing up in an image-obsessed world have clearly informed her songwriting ? but her real raison d'etre is a side project, loveyourflaws.com, where Caitlin does her part to reverse the damage of negative body image on young girls. Caitlin sat down with PopEater to discuss the perks and perils of growing up almost famous, the responsibility celebrities have to their fans, and what effect songs like 'I Kissed a Girl' have on the kids.

What's the significance of your CD cover?

It actually was an accident, but I'm so glad it happened. The photographer was just taking test shots and the art director said, "This actually looks good." I looked, and was like, "This is amazing, this is exactly what I want to talk about." I was not taking it seriously, blowing bubbles, having fun... while people were doing my makeup and trying to beautify and cover up. That's my main passion, you know, real beauty and makeup and having girls take off their makeup and show their real skin. I know I'm wearing a ton of makeup now, and you have to do this for certain things, but I love taking it off. So I'm poking fun at that.

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How do you balance the advantages you gain from your appearance with your sort of anti-aesthetic approach to the world?

I think that growing up in Los Angeles and being around the industry so much - and my parents being in the industry - I never felt like a pretty girl. Whatever my insecurities were - acne, or this or that or whatever - I was so obsessed with it. I have a song that's about all the quirks and things that are "wrong with me," or that are flaws that every girl can relate to. Everyone has their insecurities. I made a video called 'Flawz', where you see the other side, which is not glammed up, like waking up in the morning with the acne and then the airbrushing. I like showing the contrast ? 'cause yeah, a girl can be Photoshopped, or have her hair done and colored - but then look like a completely different person, like everybody else. I understand playing the game. A magazine might want to see a certain image - but I like to talk about the fact that it's all fake.

There will be people who look at you and think this is all easy for you to say. Of course, it's all relative.

Growing up around famous people, I saw that "the most beautiful girls in the world" are some of the most insecure people around. I've been going around the US interviewing teenage girls and older women - 90-year-old women. I've found some of the most confident girls and women are not the ones that you might think - because they're not as aesthically pleasing - and I think they've developed self-esteem because they've had to get it in other areas, for who they are. That's what makes someone confident. There's always going to be someone who's prettier than you, there's always someone with a better body or better boobs or a smaller waist or whatever. Pretty girls are never satisfied. They never had to build themselves up in other ways. I think pretty girls aren't very confident usually.

My dad manages actors, so [I had] to go to premieres from a young age. "Get pretty and get dolled up" - and I had to be on all the time. I was so young - eleven or twelve - and I got into the unhealthy pattern of covering my pimples up in the bathroom [first thing in the morning] because I didn't want my family to see my "flaws." I always felt like I had to look like the magazines. So now I've completely rebelled.

My dad found Charlize Theron, and she was like a big sister growing up. Seeing her posters and her headshots in the room... who can live up to that image of beauty? I always felt so awkward and the ugly stepsister.

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Do you think Katy Perry and songs like 'I Kissed a Girl' - the idea that a girl kissing girls solely as a show for boys is sexy or provocative - are those healthy influences for teenaged girls?

I think she's so talented and I've known her for a few years - I think she's great. But that song, I don't think is empowering. My heart is for the youth and teenagers, so nothing's wrong with what she's saying, necessarily, but I wouldn't want to... I just try to be careful of what I say and what I put out there, so I wouldn't necessarily want to write a song to do things that I'm not - no, that sounds horrible. Maybe it does empower girls and that's great, but it's not my cup of tea.

It's interesting how somebody who makes a statement like that gets really famous and so much publicity, because you're saying something controversial. Again, because my heart is for young girls - I kind of want to focus on saying other things. I played at a Girl Scout event - it was a thousand girls and their moms, and it meant so much to me when the moms came up and said, "Thank you for letting our daughters be inspired in a different way."

How much responsibility do celebrities have to their fans?

It so annoys me when celebrities are like, "I'm not a role model, don't look at me. I'm just a singer, or I'm just an actress." This is a huge responsibility. If you're making all this money - the reality is, a whole generation is looking to what famous people are doing, and they do it. I don't have a huge fanbase yet, but I was challenged a few months ago. I was supposed to speak at a conference [for young girls]. Some of the moms saw some of the pictures on my MySpace, and said, "Actually, we don't want you to speak any more, because of A, B and C. " I was devastated. It felt so bad, and it made me look at [the pictures] and think, "Is it worth having these up?" They were just funny to me, but I thought, "What am I saying?"

At the same, it's a balance. I don't want to be a robot and take down anything anyone has a problem with. I definitely have things I feel like I find fine, and if people have a problem with it, that's their opinion. I kept some of the ones up that the moms didn't think were kosher - but some of them I took down. They made a good point, I could give a wrong impression. I had a vision of some 12-year-old relating to something in my songs and then looking through the pictures with alcohol or something. It's a balance but it's something to be aware of. Maybe more than teachers, more than even parents, kids look to what they're seeing in Us Weekly. If you know that they're listening to you, that's a huge responsibility and you need to take it seriously.

Even in photo shoots, I want to be aware. Even though maybe it's not that big of a deal, I don't want to get into a gray area, where little by little the lines of your character get blurred. You get used to showing more and more skin to push the envelope more. I never want to get into the cycle where I have to top what I already did, top what I already showed. It's hard, that stuff brings publicity, but there are other, better ways to do that.

What kind of music career do you want to have? Whose path do you admire?

Pink. I really like that she's really outspoken and has strong opinions about things, and I feel that people respect her. In every album, every few songs, she's saying something. Whether I happen to agree with what she's saying or not, I like that she's saying something. She's pro-active about using her voice for a reason. Honestly, I feel like whenever I'm singing the breakup songs and the love songs, it's a waste of time. Maybe if someone likes it, that's cool, but I have zero passion about it... cause I don't care. But I guess you have to have some sort of love song on a record.

Anything else we should know about you?

I made a website called loveyourflaws.com - we haven't promoted it at all yet. It's not done - I've been editing this video for it. So on the website, there are inspiring quotes, and people can see all the pictures, and add their videos. That's what I think about every day... I think like two people have gone to it.