United Kingdom, May 2 -- Nicole Scherzinger's life as a pop star was "really scary".

The singer started out as a member of girl group Eden Crush before joining the Pussycat Dolls, but Nicole has admitted life in the spotlight was hard for young women because there were very few conversations about mental health issues and she was very "hard" on herself.

She told PEOPLE: "I think a lot of people in the industry battle with this feeling of it never being enough. You have this insatiable hunger within you that it's just like, it never feels like enough.

"We want that validation. We want that acceptance, and we want to be seen. I was very hard on myself ...

"A lot of things have changed in the past 20 years. People are just more aware and...