Justin Bieber, who was just a kid when he got his start on YouTube and started making music, has had more ups than downs in his young life. As he starts to take control of his adulthood, though, he’s looking back at his mistakes with a more measured eye and putting his life together one deliberate step at a time.
PEOPLE’s Carolyn Kellogg has a conversation with the pop star, who opens up about his past struggles with anxiety and depression, and how he’s trying to change his outlook on life. He shares his advice for struggling young people and how he’s working to be more of the person he wants himself to be in his new album, Justice.
The song, which features Carly Rae Jepsen, is a tribute to the girl who gave him his first kiss in a public place, according to the official description on Apple Music. The video also features concert footage from Bieber’s Believe tour. In the clip, he invites the girl onstage to hold hands with her and hug tight during the performance.
When he was just a kid, Bieber dreamed of being the biggest superstar in the world. And for a while, that’s exactly what he was. But as he started to grow up, he learned that the real world isn’t quite like what he’d imagined. It comes with a lot of pressures, from money to bodyguards to label executives who have their own reasons for wanting him to keep performing. And that’s when he began to lose sight of what he actually wanted, beyond the material things and further success.
He says that two of the main things that brought him back were his marriage and his faith, both of which have value systems that aren’t built around him performing in exchange for money. He’s now working to be more of the person he always wanted to be, and that means being there for other people who are struggling.
The new song, the inspirational messages on Instagram, his deliberately calm approach to his days — it’s all aimed in some way at that kid who was drowning and felt as if he could never be saved. The goal is to be the comforter he needed when he was younger.
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This article was originally published on June 22, 2018. It has been updated to reflect the most recent information about Justin Bieber.
About justin bieber
Justin Bieber has made nearly every mistake a child star can make, including some that almost destroyed him. But now, fortified by God, marriage and a new album of his own, he’s putting his life back together, one positive, deliberate step at a time.