Little Mix have hit out at sexism in the music industry – admitting each band member has considered quitting over the "s**t" they’ve been through.
The ‘Strip’ hitmakers – made up of Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock – claim boy bands still get treated differently to them during discussions about tunes, whereas they will be written off as "whining" about something if they disagree over a song choice.
Perrie said: "It’s double standards when you’re young women. When we started out it was almost like, ‘This is your lane, stay in your lane. You’re the faces and the name.’
"We’re not. We’re the brand. We’re businesswomen. It’s our baby. So everything we do creatively comes from us
"It is frustrating that if a group of guys were to say, ‘We’re not going to do that song, we’re going to release this song,’ it’s like, ‘Maybe we should listen.’
"Whereas, when we do it, it’s like, ‘Oh they’re at it again, they’re whining.’
"But we’re not. We’re perfectionists. We take everything we do so seriously. It’s important to us."
Jesy admits all four of the group have thought about hanging up their microphones at times, but they have helped each other through the bad moments, and the girl band still have plenty of money to make.
She said: "We have days when we moan, but we love it. And I would hate to not do this ever again.
"We’ve all had a time where we’ve thought about quitting because of s**t we’ve been through in the industry and it’s just been too much, but we help each other through
We’re just very lucky we have each other. We’d go insane if we didn’t."
Leigh-Anne quipped: "We’ve got a lot more money to make."
Little Mix recently split from Simon Cowell’s Syco Records, who they signed to after winning ‘The X Factor’ in 2011, and they are "excited" about having a "fresh start".
Speaking to The Sun newspaper, Leigh-Anne added: "We were with Syco for seven years and had an incredible journey but it’s going to be nice to change it up and get a new view on us.
"A change and a fresh start is a good thing, we’re excited.
"I think it’s going to be good for us as well. I’m intrigued to see what people want to do for us.
"We definitely speak our mind now. If we don’t like it, we always say it."
Earlier this week, Simon claimed the "embarrassing" split was down to a dispute over one of their recent singles, ‘Woman Like Me’.
He said: "It was just embarrassing but, funnily enough, I was more annoyed … not about me, but about the fact people who had worked so hard in my company were being misrepresented.
"Why do artists think they’re more important than staff members? They’re not. They’re the same.
"The irony was the record they were arguing about, which is ‘Woman Like Me’, they didn’t want to record. This was one of those ironic times that we were having a hit and nobody was happy."
Little Mix hit out at music industry sexism
