Quotes from Alessia Cara

Canada is a really big melting pot of cultures, so we ended up with a giant mosaic of different music.

Real social situations are taking a back seat to social media.

Talent is talent, but fashion is separate, and it shouldn't be used to judge me as a singer.

I see songs in colors; I see days of the week. Each day of the week I relate to a gender, and it's very weird. I can taste words sometimes. It's very strange.

I was one of those weird kids who didn't really speak or smile. I remember my teachers would call home and ask if everything was fine at home because I would never smile. Then I got into this phase, from maybe fourth to eighth grade, where my personality just did a 180.

I've never really aspired to the spotlight; I just wanted to do music, which is kind of weird because music comes with that spotlight.

I was always so scared to sing in front of people. That was kind of my weird thing.

I like to mimic accents. I don't even know if that's a talent. That's just a weird thing that I do.

Beauty comes in all forms. It's not just external; it's internal as well.

I didn't start writing songs, honestly, until I started making my album. I was always doing poetry, but I never thought I could write songs. I discouraged myself and thought it was so hard. But starting this process and learning just what it is to be a songwriter and performer taught me that you don't have to feel discouraged about anything.

It's hard to consider myself one when a lot of my fans and people who are calling me a role model are people my age and sometimes older than me. I feel like they're at the same walk of life that I'm in right now, and they can probably teach me things about life, too.

Success is when you see something, and you say, 'I want to do that,' and then you do it. It's being happy with what you do and doing what you love every day.

I always did music privately as a hobby, I think partly because I was nervous to do it in front of other people.

'Looking For Alaska' by John Green is a very great book. I feel like every teenage girl says John Green's 'Fault In Our Stars,' but 'Looking For Alaska' is better.

It's so cool though when I see thirty-year-old men that are coming in to watch my shows. It's like, 'You really like my music? Like a teenage girl, you relate to it?' It just proves how much people are alike.

I think all teenagers feel a lot of things at once; everything's going crazy in our brain.

I don't want to be cliched, but Buckingham Palace is beautiful, and the old red telephone booths are really interesting to me. I've always wanted to see those.

I want to show people that I am comfortable enough to go on national television and just be myself.

The definition of being a feminist is equality, and if you're not a feminist at this point, then what are you really promoting?

Having a mom as a hairdresser was really awesome: I was always her test dummy. I've had every style, every color you could imagine.

I would love to host 'Saturday Night Live.' That's one of my goals in life - just putting that out there. I don't know if I'm funny enough, but we'll see.

This industry kind of forces you to grow up very quickly.

I never really necessarily liked being quiet.

Both my parents are Italian. My mom was born and raised in Italy. My dad was born in Canada, but then they moved to Italy.