Demi Lovato in New York
Louis Lanzano/Landov
"I used to write [really dark] songs every night in my room – like, five or six a night – and I'd be up until 5 in the morning," she tells MTV News. "[Mom] would come up and say, 'So what are you writing?' I'd play her a song, and she'd go, 'Wow – go to therapy.' But it really is therapy for me."
Still, Lovato, 16, hopes that at least one song on her album (one she wrote herself) will resonate with her young audience.
"The song is about feeling insecure and just not feeling pretty, and I hope girls my age can relate to it, because I just felt like there needed to be a song about how not everyone has confidence," she says.
Lovato, who is touring with the Jonas Brothers, collaborated with the trio on one of the album's songs. "I would love to have their input anytime," she tells MTV, "because they're obviously doing something right."
So who is Lovato's dream duet? "I hope to do a collaboration with Kelly Clarkson," she admits. "[She] has been my idol growing up. [That] would be the biggest dream come true."
Don't Forget hits stores on September 23.
