Meghan Trainor thought she needed to "fix" her weight before becoming famous.
The 26-year-old singer – who wrote songs for other artists before her own success – had intended to give her self-love hit ‘All About That Bass’ to another musician as she believed she would "never look as good" as other pop stars.
Speaking on Ashley Graham’s podcast ‘Pretty Big Deal’, Meghan said of the now-famous lyrics celebrating a curvy body: "I knew it would never [work], I thought it would never work. People don’t sing about that stuff. People are just hot, and pop stars are just hot and beautiful. I’ll never look as good as Rihanna, you know."
Instead, the songwriter planned to lose weight by her mid 20s and show her talent to the world.
She claimed: "I told my dad, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be 26 and I’ll be the biggest songwriter and then I’ll figure out how to fix my body and lose weight and look like a pop star, and then I’ll do it.’"
However, the universe had other plans as a meeting with big-time producer Antonio Marquis ‘L.A.’ Reid threw the ‘Me Too’ hitmaker into the spotlight.
Meghan explained: "L.A. Reid was like you look perfect and you are perfect and this song is perfect. And then I started learning that years and years of singing this song to people and seeing their reactions and hearing their stories, I was like, ‘Me too!’ It was my therapy."
Since launching to fame, Meghan has been an advocate for body inclusivity with her hit songs and even took down her music video for ‘Me Too’ when she noticed that it was photoshopped.
After noticing the error, Meghan recalled: "I screamed. I freaked out …
"My manager at the time, Troy Carter, ripped it down. He was like, this is impossible but I’m gonna do it. And he ripped it down for me and fixed it."
Meghan Trainor thought she needed to ‘fix’ her body before becoming famous
