Demi Lovato may look invincible in her latest photo spread, but the 19-year-old remembers all too well what it feels like to be completely vulnerable.
"When you punch someone on a plane, enough is enough," the "Skyscraper" singer admits in the September issue of Elle, referring to the meltdown while on tour with the Jonas Brothers that landed her in treatment for depression and an eating disorder, which in turn led to a diagnosis of bipolarism.
"I just felt like she betrayed me," she said of the girl on the receiving end of that smack, backup dancer Alex Welch. "That's the bottom line."
Lovato refuses to blame her breakdown on a breakup, however.
"I was completely out of line all summer," she said. "Just the worst attitude—totally ungrateful." But "I wouldn't credit my meltdown to a guy. There was so much other stuff in my life."
Sure enough, Lovato's health was the subject of much speculation for months before she finally checked into treatment. At one point, her then publicist said that marks on the teen's wrists that appeared to be scars from self-mutilation were imprints left by gummy bracelets.
"I don't think I would have been ready to talk about [my problems] then, but I could've come up with something better than gummy bracelets," Lovato reflected. "Needless to say, that publicist is no longer with us...I mean, she's alive."
And Lovato's more than alive and well in her Elle photo spread, too. While we'll attribute the fierceness to her new lease on life, the glam red coat, oversize sunglasses, dramatic lips and Louboutins certainly don't hurt.