Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock Says She Felt 'Overlooked' & 'Invisible' During First Years in the Band

Leigh-Anne Pinnock is opening up about her first years as part of Little Mix, where she felt invisible compared to her bandmates.

The 27-year-old singer opened up in the new party issue of ASOS magazine about racism in the music industry.

“During the first couple of years of being in the band, I did feel invisible,” she admitted. “I remember crying to my manager regularly, I just couldn’t seem to find my place and didn’t know why.”

Leigh-Anne continues that she “didn’t feel like I had as many fans as the other girls. It was a strange feeling. I never thought that it was because I was the darkest member of the band. I felt overlooked. So I did everything to make myself more noticed, convinced I wasn’t good enough.”

After being advised that she had to work twice as hard because she was the only black girl in the band, Leigh-Anne reveals that it was others coming forward with their own experiences that she started to understand her feelings.

“Now I don’t feel alone because I’ve seen lots of women speak out about this,” she shared. “I know there are girls of colour out there who have felt the same as me.”

Leigh-Anne added, “We have a massive problem with racism which is built into our society. It’s scary. But the more people that speak out, the more change we can start to make.”