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Madison Beer detailed the early years of her career, including how being sexualized at a young age potentially stalled her growth as an artist.
By Adrianne Reece Apr 29, 2025 5:30 PMTags
Madison Beer Shares the Soundtrack to Her Life: My Music Moments
Madison Beer’s rise to fame wasn’t completely positive.
In fact, the “Selfish” singer—who scored her first record deal at 13-years-old after being noticed by Justin Bieber in 2012—recently shared some uncomfortable moments from the early years of her career, including how men sexualized her as a teen.
“There was a conversation around me when I was 14. I remember people being like, ‘She’s too sexy’ and ‘We can’t see the sex because she’s so young, so we’d have to wait,’” Madison, 26, told Cosmopolitan in an interview published on April 29. “This was a real conversation, grown men talking about how I was too sexy.”
Because of this outlook, the Life Support star noted her team—which also included then-manager Scooter Braun—didn’t know how to promote her as a rising artist, and that harmed her chances of creating music. It wasn’t long until Madison’s career hit a rough patch, and nearly four years after she signed with Island Records, the label dropped her. Scooter also parted ways with her shortly after.
“Everything in my life went away within 12 hours,” Madison recalled of the drop. “I was 16 and my label was like, ‘Good luck.’ And I'm like, ‘You guys just stole years of my childhood that I’ll never get back. And now it’s just ‘good luck’ and ‘have fun?’”
At the time, Madison explained that she “felt like a dollar sign” and that her former label “shouldn’t have signed a 12-year-old without thinking of the consequences of what” that would do to her self-esteem. Despite the loss, she persevered and remained an independent artist until 2019, when she teamed up with Epic Records.
And while it’s rumored that she split with her second label earlier this year, the pop star is focused on her greatest project: herself.
“I prioritize my life and my mental health more than my career,” the Half of It author continued. “I’m really proud of where I’m at and I'm not putting all of my self-worth into my career.”
Steven Simione/FilmMagic
This isn’t the first time Madison has detailed her discouraging relationship with the industry, as she revealed that felt “silenced by older men” when she tried to champion her own career.
“When I was younger, I felt silenced in almost every room I would step into,” she told NME in February 2021. “Everyone was like, ‘Oh sweetheart, we know better than you—you don’t know what you're talking about.’ And that didn't feel good at all. I’m at a point now where I’m almost 10 years into this game, and I have a voice that I think deserves to be heard.”
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