Shania Twain Recalls Coping With Her Stepfather’s Abuse Growing Up

“All of a sudden it was like, well, what’s your problem? You know, you’re a woman and you have this beautiful body? What was so natural for other people was so scary for me. I felt exploited, but I didn’t have a choice now,” Shania explained. “I had to play the glamorous singer, had to wear my femininity more openly or more freely. And work out how I’m not gonna get groped, or raped by someone’s eyes, you know, and feel so degraded.”

Shania added that by the time she signed with a label in Nashville in 1992 she had an air of confidence to her and the way she carried herself—something she could see others sensed.

“By the time I had my record contracts I was the kind of woman that when I walked in the room, it’s like, don’t even get any closer,” she recalled. “It was clear in my body language. And I think maybe what young girls can learn too is to exude that confidence.”