United Kingdom, March 5 -- Shania Twain wanted to become a bodybuilder to stop men from touching her "inappropriately".

The 59-year-old singer was tired of finding herself in "abusive" situations and attracting unwanted attention when she was growing up and longed to project an image of herself as a "big, strong man" so she could be left alone.

She told Us Weekly magazine: "I was always insecure about my body. As a female, throughout my youth [I was] touched inappropriately so many times [and] I was in abusive situations where you hate being a woman. I hated being a girl.

"My mother goes, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' and I said, 'A bodybuilder'.

"I wanted to be a big, strong man that nobody was going to f*** around with....