The What Do You Mean? singer shot to superstardom after being discovered via YouTube.com at the age of 12, but the stress of growing up in the spotlight eventually took its toll as he hit his late teens and endured multiple run-ins with the law.

He is currently enjoying a career comeback at the age of 21, and Justin admits that although his flashy lifestyle "might seem awesome from the outside", he is still "struggling" to handle the pressures of fame.

"I felt like people were judging me all the time," he tells America's Billboard magazine of his past troubles. "I came out alive. I came out swinging. But I was close to letting (fame) completely destroy me."

Justin blames the press for exacerbating the problems faced by young stars and he is particularly sympathetic to celebrities like Kylie, who rose to fame via her family's reality TV show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

"I wouldn't suggest being a child star," he continues. "I want people to be more kind to young celebrities... I hurt for some people. Like Kylie. Look at her world: She has been living on TV since she was a kid. Every time she's looking around she sees a camera, and that's affecting how she's thinking and how she's perceiving people and why she has to do certain things...

"Situations that happen taint your mind, especially in this industry. Especially for girls. Everything is so (based) on people's looks and stuff... Look at the statistics on how many child stars have crumbled and turned out to be whack jobs. It's because - it's f**ked, bro (sic), this lifestyle."

Justin recently confessed to Britain's Telegraph magazine he still has "so much I need to work on" to really overcome his bad boy ways, and that became clear last week (ends30Oct15), when he stormed offstage in Norway after becoming angered by fans continually grabbing at his legs as he attempted to mop up spilled water. He later apologised for the concert walkout, but on Tuesday (03Nov15), video footage emerged from another recent gig in Spain, when he halted the show and criticised fans for failing to clap in time to the beat.