Pop beauty Katy Perry has a "problem" when it comes to reading.

The 'Wide Awake' songstress was raised in a strict Christian household and says religion affected her education.

Speaking in an interview with US Vogue, Perry explained: ''I have a problem reading ... I wasn't going to great schools, because my parents didn't believe in public education. They wanted the education to be influenced by their religion, so I was going to these halfway education-slash-Christian schools that were like pop-up shop-style education.''

Despite her studies suffering, Perry doesn't blame her parents.

The raven-haired singer says her mother, Mary Hudson, taught her a great deal of skills.

She gushed: ''She went to a couple of girls' schools in Carmel and then went to Berkeley and studied abroad in Spain. She speaks French, she used to be a painter, but now she is just in the ministry. She used to be a reporter, actually. She wanted to be Barbara Walters.''