The 18-year-old singer  Demi Lovato open up about her struggles with cutting, eating disorders and depression.

“To me, it’s more rewarding for me to speak about these issues and know that I’m possibly making a difference in someone’s life,” she tells The Associated Press. “I feel like I’m held more accountable to stay healthy now because now I’m a role model to young girls to not have eating issues and to not say, ‘Hey, it’s OK to starve yourself’ or ‘It’s OK to throw up after your meals.’ That’s not OK.”

“I check in with many, many people every single day,” Lovato says. “I have a very strong treatment team and it’s actually kind of overwhelming sometimes to have that many people just focused on you and your problems.”

“Now I have people around me that at the sign of anything, they say something and they speak up and they are no longer afraid to say, ‘Hey, maybe you shouldn’t be doing this’ because they’re afraid of losing their job,” she added