It gave me anxiety: Dua Lipa on impact of trolls on her health and career

Popular singer Dua Lipa has opened up about the impact of online trolls on her music career and mental health over the past few years.

In an interview featuring her Attitude magazine December cover, the Future Nostalgia singer relayed how online bullies have influenced her mental health. "I experienced a s*** ton [of bullying] at the end of my first record, and it was definitely something that gave me anxiety,” she told the outlet. “It made me upset and feel like I wasn’t good enough. Or that I’m not meant to be here or on the stage.”

Dua said the frequent negative commentary shook her confidence and self-esteem, especially as an artiste who rose to mainstream fame rather quickly. "Even after the Grammys, some people were like, ‘she doesn’t deserve it!’"

"There were so many things, especially when you start out, like a video of me dancing and they’re like, ‘Ah well, she has no stage presence’ – but they’d never been to one of my shows, they’d never seen me perform,” continued the Blow Your Mind hit-maker.

Dua had once turned into a meme after dancing at one of her tour stops in 2018. While it may have seemed harmless, the meme had a very real impact on Dua's mental health and reputation as a performer. “They would take one small snippet and run with it and it would become a whole thing,” Attitude quoted Dua as saying.

"For a short period of time, it messed with my mental health. You know, I’d go on stage and if somebody was filming me, in my head, I wasn’t, like, ‘Oh, they’re filming me because they want to keep it.’ I was like, ‘they’re filming it so they can laugh at me or something.'"

Thankfully, the singer was able to work through that paranoia, and her recent SNL stint is proof of just that. The Don't Start Now crooner did not hesitate from her onstage presence felt — or her studio performance, for that matter.

Still, the bullying from the past stuck with her and seemingly contributed to her thoughts on cancel culture and social media hate. “There should be a communal understanding that people make mistakes, and we should learn from each other’s mistakes and we should try to teach each other,” Dua added. "I think there is so much judgement and meanness… cancel culture is so dangerous and toxic."

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