Justin Bieber has struggled with transitioning from a teen to a young adult in the public eye. Now, as an independent artist with a mature and renewed perspective, he has transformed his previous outlook and developed a new focus.
Bieber rose to fame quickly from an untrained YouTube singer to teen idol. Within months of posting his videos to YouTube, Bieber became an Internet sensation and gained many fans. He was flown to Atlanta by an eager manager and had the opportunity to meet Usher, who later signed him to a contract. The teen singer was instantly a huge success and received positive feedback as well as a surplus of record sales. However, he learned quickly that it's not always smooth sailing at the top.
As Bieber continued to grow more popular, he experienced what was only the start of many scandals and bad press. His clean record started to diminish before our eyes. The talented and successful teen pop star started going after photographers, was a bad neighbor, turned to alcohol and drug abuse and even started to disrespect his fans. Now, in multiple videos and interviews, he has said that he wants to embrace Christianity and strive to be more like Jesus.
In an interview with "Complex Magazine," Bieber said, “I think that people, as soon as they start hearing me saying I’m a Christian, they’re like, ‘Whoa Justin, back up, take a step back.’ Also, I do not want to shove this down anyone’s throat. I just wanna honestly live like Jesus. Not be Jesus—I could never—I don’t want that to come across weird. He created a pretty awesome template of how to love people and how to be gracious and kind."
Bieber did not hesitate when asked about his faith in the interview. He continued to explain his personal understanding of Christianity by stating, “If we can understand that we’re all imperfect, let’s come to God and come for His help. You’re not weak by doing that. I think that’s a common misperception of Christians, that you're weak because you can’t handle it. None of us can handle this world, dude! It’s eating us alive.”
Bieber discussed earlier in the year, his personal goals and transition for this next year with Ellen DeGeneres on "The Ellen Show."