The X Factor's Alice: I Won't Be Bullied Again

The X Factor hopeful Alice Bottomley has a message to her detractors: “It doesn’t matter what you look like, what you weigh, what colour your skin is, if you’re gay or straight—if you have a dream, you can do whatever you want,” she tells WHO during a photo shoot at her Melbourne home, after knocking the audience and judges for six with her soul-packed audition, which aired on July 20.

Said Redfoo, “You’re going to be the next pop star,” while Dannii Minogue raved, “You’re naughty cool, sexy and fun and your singing is damn good!”

While Melbourne-based Bottomley, a chef and university student enrolment coordinator, felt “incredible” after her reception on Seven’s hit talent show, for a long time she suffered over being called numerous hurtful names.

Bullied for “most of my school life,” Bottomley, 23, has battled persistent anxiety, for which she takes medication. “I’ve always been very loud and outspoken and big, and you know, people don’t like that,” she reveals, adding, “People threw things at me… I had people punch me on the side of the head when they got off the school bus.”

She found some solace in her musical talents, which run in her family, and has been doing musical theatre “for years.” By going solo on The X Factor, the Christina Aguilera fan aims to “break the preconceived notion of what a pop star has to look like,” says Bottomley, who made it through to boot camp. “They love me the way I am,” she adds. “My confidence has grown tenfold.”