Shania Twain wanted to become a bodybuilder to stop men from touching her "inappropriately"

She told Us Weekly magazine: "I was always insecure about my body. As a female, throughout my youth [I was] touched inappropriately so many times [and] I was in abusive situations where you hate being a woman. I hated being a girl.

"My mother goes, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' and I said, 'A bodybuilder'.

"I wanted to be a big, strong man that nobody was going to f*** around with. No one was going to touch my arm or my a** or anything unless I was OK with it."

The 'That Don't Impress Me Much' hitmaker felt very insecure as a teenager because of her curves.

She said: "I was hiding all through my teens. I hated having boobs, I hated having hips. I think a lot of that was also because a lot of the models when I was a kid were very, very thin. That was a sign of elegance and feminine beauty to me."

But Shania eventually learned to love herself and embrace her femininity.

Asked when she started to be more accepting of herself, she said: "Once I got behind the camera and started looking at clothes and fashion, I was like, 'Wow, I'm actually a woman after all, and I think I might like it.'

"When I wrote 'Man, I Feel Like a Woman!', it was an absolute celebration [of that]. And I felt empowered behind the camera. I was like, 'They can't grab me. I'm safe.' "

The 'You're Still the One' hitmaker urged women to stop comparing themselves to other people and to be "real" about themselves.

She said: "I wish I'd come to this so much earlier, but I think referencing yourself to others is dangerous.

"For me, walking on the beach in a bathing suit is like, 'What was I waiting for?'

"Of course I don't have the body I imagined - because my image of the perfect body is a supermodel with no cellulite, perfect proportions and a beautiful stride. This is just not me. You can wish a lot of time away ignoring what you actually look like. Just get real with yourself."