Leigh-Anne Pinnock felt "invisible" when Little Mix were starting out.
Leigh-Anne Pinnock
The 'Black Magic' hitmakers rose to fame on 'The X Factor' but the 27-year-old singer felt she was the least liked of the group for two years after they first found success but never thought it could be because of her skin colour.
She said: "During the first couple of years of being in the band, I did feel invisible. I remember crying to my manager regularly, I just couldn't seem to find my place and didn't know why. I didn't feel like I had as many fans as the other girls. It was a strange feeling. I never thought that it was because I was the darkest member of the band. I felt overlooked. So I did everything to make myself more noticed, convinced I wasn't good enough."
However, now Leigh-Anne doesn't "feel alone" anymore as she realises a lot of other women are feeling how she felt.
Slamming society's "massive problem with racism", she told ASOS magazine: "Now I don't feel alone because I've seen lots of women speak out about this. I know there are girls of colour out there who have felt the same as me. We have a massive problem with racism which is built into our society. It's scary. But the more people that speak out, the more change we can start to make."
Meanwhile, Leigh-Anne previously insisted she doesn't care about "negative comments" people make about Little Mix's skimpy outfits.
She explained: "I think with us, we love to just wear what we want to wear. When we feel comfortable on stage, we're not really interested in the negative comments that people are saying about them being provocative. I don't even think they're that provocative if I'm honest!"
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