Christina Aguilera was shamed over her weight by music industry executives when her body started to change as she grew up.

The singer was 18 years old when she shot to fame back in 1999 with the release of her debut single 'Genie in a Bottle' and she's now looked back on her early years in the spotlight and revealed she was given a tough time over body image issues.

She told Glamour magazine: "When you’re a teenager, you have a very different body than when you’re in your 20s. I started to fill out, and then that was unacceptable because it was like, ‘Oh, she’s getting thicker.’ Then I had industry people [saying]: ‘They liked your body and how you were as a skinny teenager'."

Christina went on to insist she no longer cares about other people's opinions of her, but she worries about issues her children - Max, 16, and Summer, nine, - will have to face in their lifetimes.

She added: "Your kids trigger things in you that you don’t want them to go through. And it’s almost like you’re reliving this whole thing again ...

"I’ve seen so much so young. You just want the best for your kids ...

"I love my son and my daughter so much, and you do want to shield and protect them from the world ... But they have to learn their own lessons."

She added of her kids: "They’re going to make their own choices and mistakes that define how they want to be. It’s such a layered, interesting thing to be a parent and watch these people, these humans, grow up."

Christina's son Max is from her marriage to Jordan Bratman - who she was married to between 2005 and 2011 - and she is mum to Summer with her current partner Matthew Rutler.