At the age of 20, Kelly Clarkson hit the spotlight as a contestant on the very first season of American Idol. This was back in 2002 and the whole world was watching. She released albums rapidly following her win, in 2003 and 2004. Clarkson was anxious to prove that she wasn’t just another reality TV star or one-hit-wonder. Her 2004 album, Breakaway, had several top 40 number-one singles. Breakaway sold more than 12 million copies and earned the singer two Grammys.

Kelly has continued to work in the industry as a songwriter and performer, and well as a mentor on the hit show, The Voice. Today, Kelly is a mom and her fans are still loyal. They feel like they watched her grow up right in front of them. Because of Kelly’s open personality and girl-next-door vibe, onstage, on television, and on social media, people really relate to her.

Kelly is authentically herself and is often sharing little tidbits about her life that many other stars wouldn’t dare mention, but that’s actually why people love her so much. Now that Kelly has her own talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, more secrets are tumbling out of the star’s mouth.

Recently, the world learned that Kelly thinks vampires are sexy. Here is some background on that confession, along with 14 other things the singer has admitted.

15 Interview With A Vampire

Even celebs are capable of fangirling, and for Kelly Clarkson, that level of enthusiasm is reserved for vampires. During her talk show, Kelly made it apparent that in the world of The Vampire Diaries she’s 100 percent, 'team Stefan'.

During the interview, Kelly fessed up to her celeb crush gushing, "I don't think you knew I was a real fan." Actor Paul Wesley was clearly flattered about Kelly sharing the love with her audience.

14 Her 'Bed Time' Routine

When Kelly agreed to an 'Ask Me Anything' (AMA) session with 16-year-old Brynn Cartelli, who won The Voice, she wasn’t going to lie. When she was asked, "What's the last thing you do before you go to bed?" she told the whole truth.

Kelly laughed and then gave her no-holds-barred answer saying, "Well, Brynn, I was single for many years. I have children and how one makes children is generally what I do before bed. That is not a lie."

Brynn was thankful for Clarkson’s candor and, after some laughter, replied, "And this is why America loves you.”

13 Advice For Her Former Self

With age comes wisdom, right? Now that Kelly is a mom and has over 15 years in the spotlight under her belt, she’s learned a thing or two.

In an interview with InStyle Magazine, Kelly pointed out past mistakes. “I would tell my younger self to stop trying to save or fix people. I spent a solid portion of my life trying to justify others' actions, and it was exhausting to say the least. People must help themselves. I am not that powerful. No one is. I’ve learned to surround myself with people I want to be like.”

12 Dark Times In 2004

Despite riding high on success, Kelly found the pressures of her newfound success to be hard to cope with. Kelly said there was a lot of emphasis on her looking a particular way and, when she did everything she could to meet this pop star ‘ideal’, she was completely miserable.

11 Telling Fans Before Family About Pregnancy

Kelly found herself in hot water with her family, including hubby Brandon Blackstock, after telling her fans news of her pregnancy before she told some family members.

When on The Tyler Oakley Show, Kelly confessed, "By the way, I wasn't supposed to [tell people I was pregnant]. My husband was like, 'You seriously can't keep anything in' because we hadn't told our whole family yet, and I just thought these people are going to think I'm crazy because I was so emotional. I just have super duper pregnancy moments where everything is just one hundred times more intense."

10 The Omen That Led Her To Singing

Kelly says that long before her time on American Idol, she had another moment that started her on the path to stardom. Following a junior high performance, an older man (who she thought must have been someone’s grandfather) approached her to compliment her on her performance, telling her she would be performing for the rest of her life.

She asked everyone around if they knew who this man was, but no one did. To this day, she still hasn’t been able to track the man down.

9 When She Was A Terrible Date

When Kelly was on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she had something she wanted to confess that involved her dating life. Kelly talked about being 18 and going on a date with a shorter man who couldn’t get over his own small stature.

Kelly said, “We get there, and I am super self-deprecating. I think it’s the funniest thing ever. To a point. Then it gets real mean to yourself. He proceeded to talk about his height for a solid hour,”

5’3″ Clarkson said of her 5’2″ date. “I withstood an hour. Then I went to the bathroom and I left.” Ellen confirmed that Kelly had, in fact, snuck out and Kelly added, “I left him just sitting there at a Bennigans.”

8 Parenting Confessions

In terms of parenting, even celebs aren’t above mom guilt. Clarkson has admitted, “It's hard. You have to juggle everything. While I love music, my family comes first. There are days where s**t hits the fan, and I'm crying because there's not enough time to do everything. But that's any mom. It's a hard thing to take care of children. You're molding lives. You don't want to suck at it.”

7 Stepping Up Against Haters

Kelly isn’t going to be bullied, especially by online trolls. When a hater posted about how Kelly should be replaced on The Voice because she is annoying, loud, and rude, Kelly wasn’t going to sit idly by. Kelly is willing to own up to her flaws.

The Inquisitr posted Kelly’s response to the comments where Kelly posted back (along with a wink emoji), “Okay okay, I’ll give you the first two because I’m self-aware, but rude, no girl that ain’t me.”

6 On Celeb Surgery Pledge

Kelly Clarkson wanted fans to know that she too has felt the pressure to change the way she looks for the sake of her celebrity and public image. Then she and fellow performer Pink signed a pledge that they maintain their natural facial features without surgical enhancement.

The two have a lot in common beyond their down to earth approach to aging. When speaking of their friendship, Clarkson told ET of Pink: “She's branched out just like me, in like the singer-songwriter kinda country stuff or rock 'n' roll. We both love a lot of the same things."

5 What Helped Her Bond With Jerry Springer

Misery loves company, and that includes movie performances that were a total flop. When Jerry Springer was a guest on Kelly Clarkson’s talk show, the two began talking about their cinematic pasts.

Kelly admitted: “mine was contractually obligated. It was horrible! How was yours?" Jerry admitted his cinematic past was also awful and the two high fived.

Kelly felt a need to add in that they both deserved “Razzies” for their not-so-great films.

4 Controversial Parenting Hack

Kelly knows that, as a working parent, you need to get work done whenever you can, and that includes when you’re traveling.

Kelly said, “I know there’s a lot of hippy dippy moms out there who don’t approve of iPads, and I think that’s great for them. More power to you, but we definitely have iPads, because at some point travel can be total hell. Not just with kids, but in general. A flight gets delayed, things happen, weather. Just having something they can escape [with], play little games, watch movies on it."

Kelly said that during travel time, iPads for her kids give her space to work or chill: “I have time to read and go over my schedule, or work on the next Voice rounds, or write some songs.”

3 Making Kelly Cry

Kelly is close to her family and makes no secret of this, so stories about family can often bring her to tears. While on her show, Andy Grammar spoke about his mother passing away in 2009 and how he tried to reach out to her through a medium. He believes it worked, and that she asked him to write a song from her perspective for the granddaughter she never got to meet. This moved both Kelly and audience members.

2 The TV Show She Can't Watch

Kelly Clarkson is a hard-working woman, but that doesn’t mean she has a big ego. When approached on the red carpet about the success of her talk show, Kelly confessed something that many people can relate to, particularly those who don’t want to look at their image on video.

Kelly said, “I can’t watch it because I hate watching me, but people seem to like it.”

1 Not A Little Bit Country?

In a promo video for her talk show, Kelly talked about a broad range of topics – one topic was her thoughts on the music industry. It turns out that the star believes that the quality of modern country stars has gone downhill.

Clarkson also admitted that the industry itself was much better back in the 1990s. Kelly said, “Country music is gone. I don’t know who’s making it, but there might be, like, four people.”

Sources: Global News, Hollywood Life, The Smoking Gun, Country Living, I Heart Radio, USA Today, The Blast, NBC, Country Rebel, Niagara This Week

Next: 20 Pics Of Kelly Clarkson's Transformation From 2002 To 2020