I was definitely raised this way. My folks are very grounded, normal people, and I wasn't raised in the entertainment industry. I just grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, in a very normal family. I wasn't a child actor or anything like that.
I was fortunate to grow up in a middle-class home with two hardworking parents who enjoyed both reading and mathematics.
What has worked for America is not caring about how the rich are doing, or the politics of envy. What's worked for America is growth. Growth is the reason why I had a very nice middle class upbringing with parents who never went to college.
No doubt, my parents were hardworking, you know, middle class. My father, when my sister and I were younger, he was a parking attendant at the old Dunes Hotel and Casino. My mother was a bookkeeper in a title company.
I said I wanted to be a model when I was in middle school. Everyone close to me raised doubts except for my parents. My parents trusted me and gave me full support.
I like to think I'm very grounded. I'm very grounded in my family. I'm very grounded in my community.
I was very much an only child who was raised by the television and movies, and I grew up in New York. We weren't, like, rich people, but we were middle-class people and my parents supported this love I had for entertainment.
My siblings and I were raised to be very hardworking and to find something that we're passionate in, and to be able to turn that into work - I'm lucky to be able to say that I've done that.
When people say, 'You seem so grounded; you seem so normal,' I think it's the way I was raised and the way my sister and I were brought up by our parents.
My parents kept me very grounded.
I was raised by both parents up to 17. We had a good family. We had a middle class family, good teaching and good surroundings, raised by the church, where I went every week whether I wanted to or not.
I think I'm lucky having parents that have been in show business for a while, and they don't care about the shiny stuff so much. They raised me in that way - to stay grounded, not to chase the shiny, pretty things.
The business can be frustrating. For me, Omaha is a rounding foundation. I was raised in a very faith-filled household, very hardworking. It made me aware of what privilege is. And it's a place I can go back to, spend time with nieces and nephews, celebrate the things that have nothing to do with the hubbub of Hollywood.
I love everyone that supports me, and things can get wild at times, but my parents raised me to be grounded and to always remain humble. I think that's one of the main reasons that my fans support me.
Every piece of remotely responsible research that has been done in the last 20 years on this issue has shown there is no difference between children who are raised by same-sex parents and children who are raised by opposite-sex parents. What matters is that children are being raised in a stable, loving environment.
That was very difficult for me on 'American Idol' to feel like I had to be a certain way. It wasn't that the producers were saying that you shouldn't be gay or whatever, but there was this unspoken energy around saying you have to appeal to Middle America, and Middle America at that point was not ready for all that.