Lindsay Arnold Opens Up About Troupe Vs. Pro Status On 'Dancing With The Stars' (Exclusive)

Earlier this season, many fans were disappointed to find out that Sasha Farber and Jenna Johnson were put back in the troupe after being a pro in the past, and Lindsay Arnold knows exactly how that feels.

If you remember, for her first year on the show, Lindsay was a pro and partnered up with boxer Victor Ortiz in season 16. They were eliminated fourth (8th place) and in season 17, she was put in the troupe.

“It was actually a huge deal for me. My very first season, I was a pro,” Lindsay recalls to JJJ. “After that, I was brought back down to the troupe for four more seasons.”

After the producers made that decision (a decision we’ve since learned has to do with height), she had a really tough time.

“I was battling with the idea of ‘why did I get taken away from being a pro? Is it because I wasn’t good enough? Am I not pretty enough? Do I know have a good enough personality?’ There was a lot of things that as a young dancer, I struggled with.”

Lindsay continues, “It took me a while to get over that and to stop trying that I wasn’t and trying to be this perfect person instead of recognizing that I needed to be myself.”

“I realized that if that wasn’t enough, then it wasn’t the right thing for me. As soon as I did that (being myself), that’s when I gained that confidence and right after then, I was a pro again. I stopped trying to be something that wasn’t me. I told myself to do just be you and ‘you are enough and things will happen the way they’re supposed to’. I did that and I was back as a pro.”

Believing in herself and just being who she was, was the key to Lindsay‘s success.

“More than anything, I was proud that I did it while I was myself,” she says. “I didn’t change who I was to get the promotion. I wasn’t trying to be something else to get that job that I wanted. I truly stopped doing that and was being Lindsay and being confident in myself.”

And that was all she had to do: “It was a huge life learning moment for me. Sometimes the doubts and fears that we have are keeping us from what we really want. Being happy and being confident in who you are is the thing that’s going to get you to where you want and need to be.”

Dancing With The Stars airs TONIGHT @ 8PM ET/PT on ABC.

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