Demi Lovato Says Being Compared To Miley Cyrus & Selena Gomez Was “Challenging”

Demi Lovato is part of a prestigious Disney Channel pantheon, but it wasn’t easy to be mentioned in the same breath as her fellow pop icons. On the March 3 episode of the Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast, the singer opened up about being pitted against Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez during their shared time on the network, admitting that the comparisons got “challenging.”

Speaking to fellow child star Palmer, Lovato explained she was already friends with Gomez before they started working for Disney. “We actually were on Barney together, and so I felt this safety when I came into the Disney Channel having a built-in friendship there already,” she said. “I’m so grateful for that, and I’ll always be grateful for the friendship that I had and continue to have with her.”

However, Lovato went on to admit that being compared to Gomez and Cyrus was “challenging” as a teenager. “You naturally have insecurities at a young age, so you start comparing yourself to other people,” she explained. She learned to ignore the discourse thanks to some sage advice from her mother, Dianna De La Garza.

“One thing my mom instilled in me was, ‘There’s room for everyone. It’s not a competition,’” she said. “Even though it can be competitive, and if you have that mindset, it definitely is competitive, my mom was just always like... ‘You have your own voice and your own lane.’ That’s what I really stuck by. That’s what kind of got me through that period. I was always rooting for everybody.”

Lovato opened up about her personal experience on the Disney Channel in her 2024 documentary Child Star, from her struggles with addiction and disordered eating, to side effects of child stardom like disassociating from filming. Now, she looks back on that time with bittersweet feelings.

“There’s so many emotions that come to mind,” she told Palmer. “Those were the years that started it all for me, and I have very fond memories. Some not-so-fond memories of the [struggles] that I had when filming those shows... But ultimately, [I have] very fond memories. I made friends that I will have for the rest of my life.”