Demi Lovato Explains the ‘Exhausting’ Process That Led to Them Re-Adopting Feminine Pronouns

It’s been two years since Demi Lovato publicly came out as nonbinary, and the star is ready to break their silence on a recent change they made to their pronouns.

In a new interview with GQ Hype Spain, Lovato broke down the reason why she changed her pronouns to she/her and they/them back in August 2022, a little more than a year after she came out publicly. “I constantly had to educate people and explain why I identified with those pronouns. It was absolutely exhausting,” she said in a quote translated from Spanish. “I just got tired. But for that very reason I know that it is important to continue spreading the word.”

During an interview on the Sprout podcast back in August, Lovato announced that they were “feeling more feminine” and had decided to update their pronouns to include she/her. “I felt like, especially last year, my energy was balanced in my masculine and feminine energy,” she said at the time. “I didn’t feel like a woman, I didn’t feel like a man. I just felt like a human.”

In her new interview, though, Lovato expressed their ongoing frustration with the lack of understanding in the wider world for life as a person existing outside the gender binary. “Having to access the women’s bathroom, even though I don’t completely identify with it — I would feel more comfortable in a genderless bathroom,” she said. “Or it also happens when filling out forms … where you have to specify your gender; you only have two options, male and female, and I feel like none of that makes sense to me.”

Still, Lovato said that the strife she’s been through in regards to their gender would be “worth it” if it meant that people “learn more about themselves and feel more comfortable in their skin” thanks to the example she set. “That is the most meaningful thing to me,” they explained. “The safe space I’ve created in the industry is proof of the safe space I’ve created in my life as well. And I think no matter what industry you’re in, you have to be comfortable to evolve.”