Mariah Carey admits to struggling with ‘low self-esteem': 'It's hard to let your guard down'

Mimi gets real!

Mariah Carey opened up in a candid interview with Page Six backstage at her Madison Square Garden show in New York City on Saturday about some of her insecurities. "I just feel like I am a regular human being and I deserve the same respect as anybody else," she confessed. "I have always had low self-esteem, and people do not recognize that."

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Carey attributed some of her self-consciousness to her upbringing, saying that being biracial made her feel uncertain as to whether she "fit in."

"That is why music became such a big part of my life, because it helped me overcome those issues," she noted. "Sometimes it is hard to let your guard down."

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The GRAMMY winner added that she often second guesses the people around her. "I do think to myself, 'Did they mean this? Or do they not really mean it?'" she admitted. "And that is with everybody -- it is not just with three people or just one."

Her humble beginnings, however, helped shape the 47-year-old singer into who she is today -- and Carey insisted that she hasn't forgotten her roots.

"I remember it not being easy getting a record deal," she recalled. "Making demos in the middle of the night, sleeping on the floor in the studio, being broke with no food. My go-to meal was [Newman's Own] sauce. Me and my friend would split the pasta and sauce for, like, a week. Or it was, like, a bagel and iced tea. ...The guy would give it to me at the deli for free."

Times have certainly changed for Carey, who is currently on the road with Lionel Richie as his special guests for the All the Hits tour, and has several projects in the works.

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"I am working on a new fragrance. I don't have a name, but it is with Elizabeth Arden," she dished. "It smells like success."

Carey continued, "There is also a secret song I have been working on."

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