The Secret Shame That Alanis Morissette No Longer Hides

Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, with two brothers and parents who were both teachers. "I pretty much grew up in a family of very passionate alphas," she says. "My role in the family was very much to be the therapist and the objective eye."

So it was only natural for Alanis to want to look deeper into the human experience, especially for herself. "I'm obsessed with psychology and spirituality books. There was a point in time where I used to hide my books in drawers because I just thought there was a version of a woman that people wanted to meet or hang with or date," she says. "Now, this is what it is. And it's evolving, and it's changing, and I'm changing some behaviors that were survival strategies in the past that make me more able to connect, but there's an essential self here that's really not going anywhere."

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