JoJo Got Famous at 13. Now, She Feels Young Stardom Is 'Like Injecting Heroin into the System of a Child' (Exclusive)

The singer and author opens up to PEOPLE about child stardom and learning to trust herself as she releases her new memoir, 'Over the Influence'

• Joanna "JoJo" Levesque reflects on her life and career in her new memoir, Over the Influence, out now

• The singer and author, who got famous at 13, tells PEOPLE about the complexities of child stardom

• "When you're a child and you're working, you start to see yourself and your body as something that's a commodity," says JoJo
  

Young fame was a blessing and a curse for Joanna "JoJo" Levesque.

In her new memoir, Over the Influence, out now, the singer and author, 33, recalls skyrocketing to fame at age 13 with the chart-topping hit single “Leave (Get Out)” and the many ups and downs that followed throughout her 20-year career, from record label struggles to addiction.

Today, JoJo’s feelings on child stardom are complex. “It's just too dangerous to your sense of self, because you don't know who you are at that time,” JoJo tells PEOPLE, “and then you will be told who you are.”

JoJo began singing as a toddler, influenced by her former singer mom, Diana, and instrumentally inclined dad, Joel. Following their divorce when she was 5 years old, the adolescent vocalist lived with her mom and begged to go to local auditions for TV programs.

Knowing they were living in poverty at the time was a partial motivator. “It wasn't that I was like, ‘I want to be famous by any means necessary or at anything’” she says. “I was like, ‘I think I have a gift, and people tell me I have a gift. I think I'm good at this, and I think it could make us money.’”

Soon enough, she was singing on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Destination Stardom and America’s Most Talented Kid, among other shows — all before the age of 10. Then, at age 12, she signed a deal with Blackground Records to become a recording artist and released “Leave (Get Out)” the following year along with her debut album.

Related: JoJo Never Thought She Would Struggle with Addiction Like Her Parents. Then It Took Hold: 'Super Self-Righteous' (Exclusive)

“By the time I got signed and then put out my first single and everything, I was like, ‘Oh, well, it's taken my whole life, so it's about time,’” reflects JoJo, whose mid-2000s were a whirlwind of earning hits, touring the world and starring in blockbuster films like Aquamarine and RV.

Set on protecting her from the “unknown variables” of the industry, plus making sure she was sleeping enough and doing well in school, Diana insisted on managing her daughter. “I think it made me, probably, a more well-rounded person than if I had somebody who was going to really capitalize on the momentum,” she says of her mom. “She didn't care about that.”

JoJo recalls Diana keeping a tight watch over her. In the book, she writes about encountering substances and adult scenarios while in a recording studio with a producer, recalling her mom standing in the room to keep her safe. “I think she made really good decisions,” she says.

After scoring a major hit with 2006’s “Too Little Too Late,” the star considered going to college before deciding to continue with her music career as she entered adulthood. Life, however, had other plans. Blackground ran into difficulties behind the scenes, and she was largely unable to release music commercially again until 2014 — following multiple lawsuits against the label.

Throughout the period of career limbo, JoJo continuously tried to appease the record label. In Over the Influence, she recalls the company claiming she could release an album if she was thinner, so she went to a nutritionist and started taking injections to aid with weight loss.

“I wish that I had had more courage to stick my flag in the sand,” says the musician, who hired a comanager to work alongside Diana as a teenager and later grew dependent on the manager’s opinions, as she was a professional. But that relationship led JoJo to rely on others to make career decisions for her.

Related: JoJo Recalls Going to Taylor Swift's House with Selena Gomez and Thinking Everyone 'Felt Bad for Me' (Exclusive)

Once she was let go from Blackground, she immediately signed with Atlantic Records, where an executive had expressed a commitment to getting her back up the charts. He left the company while she worked on 2016’s Mad Love, which felt like the loss of a guiding force.

JoJo subsequently followed him to two other record labels as he moved around the industry, but the game of tag didn’t commercially pay off the way she hoped. Through life experience and therapy, she eventually started trusting her own instincts, parted ways with the manager in 2019 and became a fully independent artist last year.

“It's still a journey, because I have a lot of unlearning to do,” says the artist, who now has a tight-knit relationship with her current manager (whom she’s known since her teenage years) and recently brought on Randy Jackson as a co-manager. “I have a lot of love and respect and admiration for him,” she adds. “He’s learning me, and learning that I’m going to do what I enjoy.”

These days, every part of JoJo’s career is on JoJo’s terms: moving to New York City last year to star in Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway, making new music to release soon and developing an original musical. “I don't have the same aspirations that I had when I was 23. I don't want to be the biggest star in the world,” she says. “I want to have a life that I like.”

While she’s now pleased with the path of her career, she advocates against child stardom and wouldn’t put a kid of her own into entertainment. “I don’t think fame on developing, squishy brain is a good thing because I think it’s like injecting heroin into the system of a child,” she says. “I don’t really recommend it, but I also don’t have any personal regrets, if that makes sense.”

There is another timeline in which her trajectory could have been completely different. Around the release of her first album, she was offered a role on Nickelodeon’s Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide but ultimately turned it down.

Related: Demi Lovato Advocates for 'Protections' to Be Put in Place for Kids in the Spotlight in 'Child Star' Trailer (Exclusive)

“Maybe it would've propelled me into a type of fame that wouldn't have been sustainable for me, and then maybe I would've crashed and burned,” says JoJo. “But I don’t spend a great deal of time thinking about what could have been.”

Having watched the buzzy Quiet on Set docuseries, working conditions for children in the entertainment industry have been on JoJo’s mind as she reflects on her career.

“When you're a child and you're working, you start to see yourself and your body as something that's a commodity,” she says, recommending better on-set education, required downtime and therapists. “I think that if a child is working and making money, there needs to be other things that are just for the joy of being a child.”

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