Thursday, September 8, 2011 10:22am ET by  
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Tulisa: 'I'm not scared to be honest about who I am'

N-Dubz's Tulisa Contostavlos admits she doesn't feel the need to change how she speaks or behaves now she's in the spotlight and she definitely isn't ashamed of her past. 

In a new interview with Company magazine, the current X Factor judge explained that she isn't afraid to be honest about who she is and that this trait is unusual in the industry:

"People forget the girls that look up to me come from the same background. I'm their role model because I'm the only celebrity that doesn't lie about the fact that she swears, gets into arguments, or was naughty when she was younger; just because I swear occasionally doesn't make me a bad person. It makes me human."

She also addressed the common accusations that label her a "chav" and said, "what is a chav? Supposedly someone from a council estate with a cockney accent. That doesn't make you a bad person. I haven't got a problem with myself or the way I talk."

"I've been put down a lot in my life and that can either make you depressed, upset and introverted or you don't care anymore."

Watch her handle an onslaught of criticism from a recently rejected X Factor contestant here: