Growing up in the Jackson household wasn’t easy. Just ask Janet, who says being teased by her older siblings caused her to develop self-esteem issues, which stay with her today.
But it didn’t end there. Janet says her issues got even worse after she started working with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis because they kept calling her a “bitch”.
The nickname used to have Janet in tears and calling her mom for comfort. "They used to call me bitch, and I hated that... I called up my mother and said, 'I wanna come home because these guys don't have any respect for women,' she explains.
Janet says the nickname hurt her especially as it reminded her of the names her brothers called her while she was growing up.
But the singer says she eventually overcame her “Bitch” nickname, after realising the producers called her it as “a term of endearment". Eh?
Janet adds that all the self-esteem issues from her childhood meant she hated to look at herself in a mirror. She explains, "I couldn't look at myself in the mirror without having to really focus on something that I liked about myself, and I would break out crying."
