Jess Mauboy was just 16 years old when she stood on a makeshift stage in the middle of the desert to audition for the 2006 season of Australian Idol. <\/p>\n
A few months later, after she had performed on stage as part of the top 11, judge Kyle Sandilands told her she needed to \u201close the jelly belly\u201d if she was going to succeed in the industry. <\/p>\n
Now, 20 years later, Mauboy has reflected on the \u201churtful\u201d impact of those comments and how it has impacted the way she approaches her role as a guest judge and mentor on the current season of Australian Idol. <\/p>\n
Listen to Jessica Mauboy on a new episode of Something To Talk About below:<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so young and I\u2019d never had this put on me before,\u201d she recalled on this week\u2019s episode of the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy mum never said that to me, my dad never said that to me, my sisters never said that to me and I never got it at school. No-one ever commented about my body.\u201d <\/p>\n
While the now 36-year-old has built an impressive career spanning singing, performing, acting and TV presenting, the remarks still haunt her today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe comments Kyle made will be forever attached to everything I do,\u201d she told host Sarrah Le Marquand. \u201cJust talking about this, I felt like a little girl again.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like that 16-year-old girl thinking that I don\u2019t know what to do with that comment,\u201d she continued. \u201cWhat am I supposed to do? I\u2019m 16 and that\u2019s what I\u2019m here for, I\u2019m here to learn and I\u2019m here to understand but how in-depth is it about my appearance? Isn\u2019t it a singing show?\u201d <\/p>\n
Mauboy, who would go on to become the runner-up on her season, felt like she just had to stand there and take the comments. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awful, it\u2019s bullying, it\u2019s hurtful and now that someone\u2019s put that in my mind, I\u2019m going to obsess about it,\u201d she recalled thinking at the time. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re not strong enough or you\u2019ve never been taught how to stand up for yourself, or love yourself, it can be a very scary place.\u201d <\/p>\n
Listen to Jessica Mauboy on a new episode of Something To Talk About below:<\/p>\n
While the \u2018Little Things\u2019 singer credits Kyle\u2019s comments with giving her the thick skin she needed to navigate the music industry, she\u2019s extra cautious about how she speaks to the contestants on this season of Australian Idol as a guest judge and mentor. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have to be very careful because I know what it felt like having been on the show and having Kyle call me a jelly belly,\u201d she said. \u201cThat cannot go on.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think we need to hold people accountable and be mindful of what we\u2019re saying \u2013 and who we\u2019re saying it to.\u201d<\/p>\n
See the full shoot with Jessica Mauboy in a new issue of Stellar, out today in the Sunday papers.<\/p>\n
For more from Stellar and podcast, Something To Talk About<\/a>, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jess Mauboy was just 16 years old when she stood on a makeshift stage in the middle of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[85,2652,430,186842,186843,156,169623,186851,186852,186846,166782,85536,38159,145184,186845,186844,65644,2648,111,139,69,2659,186853,186850,186848,186847,186849,1734,122515,99242],"class_list":["post-353170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-celebrities","tag-damien-leith","tag-desert-rose","tag-entertainment","tag-final-season","tag-grand-final-winner","tag-guest-judge","tag-impressive-career","tag-jelly-belly","tag-jess","tag-jessica-mauboy","tag-kyle-sandilands","tag-long-time-record-label","tag-makeshift-stage","tag-music-industry","tag-new-south-wales","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oceania","tag-pixar-school","tag-sarrah-le-marquand","tag-school-holiday-hit","tag-steven-chee","tag-suncare-brand","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-opera-house","tag-young-age"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}