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"In person, she&amp;amp;#8217;s a doe-eyed brunette in gym sweats&amp;amp;#8212;-no retro pinup outfit, no Bettie Page hair. Not the Katy Perry I was expecting. In fact, when I interview the Grammy-nominated singer for Glamour, I&amp;amp;#8217;m almost wondering if the whole sexpot thing is an act. That is, until Perry settles into her chair and starts talking the way most celebrities won&amp;amp;#8217;t&amp;amp;#8212;about sex, about relationships (her boyfriend, Russell Brand, was recently spotted shopping for a maybe-engagement ring) and, yes, about kissing girls. Turns out she&amp;amp;#8217;s guy-smart way beyond her 25 years, the kind of woman we could all take confidence lessons from. As for the Perry we see strutting around award shows in hot pants and bra tops? Well, her super-sex-charged stage persona seems to have been born partly from rebellion; she grew up the middle child of Christian minister parents. Since leaving her Santa Barbara home at age 17, she&amp;amp;#8217;s been making it on her own in Los Angeles&amp;amp;#8212;working crappy jobs and sinking into debt until she scored a deal with Capitol Records and released her wildly successful album, One of the Boys. &amp;amp;#8220;I have a lot of ambition,&amp;amp;#8221; she proudly admits. Listen and soak it up. GLAMOUR: With all that religion, it sounds like you had a Footloose kind of childhood. KATY PERRY: I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t see . GLAMOUR: Never? KATY PERRY: I never was allowed to. [Laughs.] Everyone related to me in my circle was from church: church friends, church school, church activities. All my friends weren&amp;amp;#8217;t allowed to watch MTV or go to PG-13 movies or listen to the radio, so I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t really know anything different. That&amp;amp;#8217;s how I was raised. GLAMOUR: Still, at 15 you dropped out of high school. KATY PERRY: Yeah, I got my GED. GLAMOUR: Then you moved to L.A. Was it a rough time? KATY PERRY: I had two cars repossessed, tons of debt. I had a horrible job [critiquing music demos] that was damaging to my soul. After being on three different labels and knowing everyone and hearing yeses and nos and &amp;amp;#8220;You&amp;amp;#8217;re it!&amp;amp;#8221; or &amp;amp;#8220;You&amp;amp;#8217;re s&amp;amp;#8212;t!&amp;amp;#8221; I was depressed. But I never took no for an answer and really believed in myself. GLAMOUR: Where does that determination come from? KATY PERRY: Maybe I&amp;amp;#8217;m competitive. I just feel like I have this gift that I&amp;amp;#8217;ve been given. It&amp;amp;#8217;s like, &amp;amp;#8220;Someone unwrap it! Here it is!&amp;amp;#8221; That drive can&amp;amp;#8217;t be held down. I have a lot of ambition. GLAMOUR: Let&amp;amp;#8217;s talk about the &amp;amp;#8220;I Kissed a Girl&amp;amp;#8221; song. I read in some places that you dreamt up the lyrics while sleeping, and I read in others that you said, &amp;amp;#8220;I haven&amp;amp;#8217;t actually kissed a girl.&amp;amp;#8221; So what&amp;amp;#8217;s the real story? KATY PERRY: When it was all hitting, I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t really know how to handle it. I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t want it to turn into this Girls Gone Wild song. I had been through the experience&amp;amp;#8212;many times&amp;amp;#8212;[but] didn&amp;amp;#8217;t want to get specific. I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t want guys to be wanking off. For me, it was a song about the magic and mystery of a woman that makes every man&amp;amp;#8212;and some women&amp;amp;#8212;get on their knees. GLAMOUR: So you&amp;amp;#8217;ve kissed a few girls, then. KATY PERRY: Yeah, and God knows what else. I have a soft spot for women&amp;amp;#8212;I&amp;amp;#8217;m not afraid of it. Some women walk into the room, and they&amp;amp;#8217;re so beautiful you&amp;amp;#8217;re like, &amp;amp;#8220;I wanna smell you,&amp;amp;#8221; you know? [Laughs.] I have certain girlfriends who I just think are the most angelic, beautiful creatures. And if any of my boyfriends ever fail me, I&amp;amp;#8217;ll turn to them! GLAMOUR: But as long as guys are still in the picture, let&amp;amp;#8217;s talk about them. In honor of our Guy Issue, what&amp;amp;#8217;s the best thing about men? KATY PERRY: Their sense of humor. I like a goofy guy. GLAMOUR: What is it about cool, hot guys you don&amp;amp;#8217;t like as much? KATY PERRY: I don&amp;amp;#8217;t like how they show off&amp;amp;#8212;they&amp;amp;#8217;re too slick, too hard to keep up with. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t have a &amp;amp;#8220;type&amp;amp;#8221; when it comes to looks, but I do know they have to respect my family and where I&amp;amp;#8217;m coming from. They have to understand the work that needs to be done. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t ever want to play the &amp;amp;#8220;mom&amp;amp;#8221; role again. I love saving people, but it is so exhausting. GLAMOUR: Do you tend to be the breakup-er or the breakup-ee? KATY PERRY: Well, I try and break up, but [my exes] never really accept it. [Laughs.] It kind of lingers forever. I&amp;amp;#8217;m so bad at breaking up&amp;amp;#8230;. GLAMOUR: Are you high-or low-maintenance? KATY PERRY: From the outside, I would be high-maintenance. But I&amp;amp;#8217;m always trying. Once, I told someone I loved them by&amp;amp;#8212;I&amp;amp;#8217;ve only loved a couple people, I don&amp;amp;#8217;t just throw that around!&amp;amp;#8212;but one time I said &amp;amp;#8220;I love you&amp;amp;#8221; in skywriting. GLAMOUR: You didn&amp;amp;#8217;t! KATY PERRY: I go for it! It was worth every penny. If I really find someone I love, I end up writing songs about them. I&amp;amp;#8217;m excited to find a partner who can just be my teammate. And there&amp;amp;#8217;s got to be respect. For me, that&amp;amp;#8217;s hard because it&amp;amp;#8217;s easy for me to steamroll guys. I need a man who tells me the party&amp;amp;#8217;s over, that it&amp;amp;#8217;s time to go home, because [we] have to work in the morning. GLAMOUR: What are your deal breakers with guys? KATY PERRY: Drugs are a huge, huge deal breaker. Substance abuse. Lack of ambition. I can&amp;amp;#8217;t deal when someone dillydallies through life. You&amp;amp;#8217;ve got to have drive&amp;amp;#8212;that&amp;amp;#8217;s so sexy. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t care if someone farts or picks his nose, because that&amp;amp;#8217;s going to happen in the long run. GLAMOUR: It&amp;amp;#8217;s the big things. KATY PERRY: Like my freedom. If I feel like I&amp;amp;#8217;m being controlled, I get crazy. Because I know I made it this far by following my intuition. I think people like who I am, and I like who I am, and I want to be a better version of myself every single day. So stop controlling me! GLAMOUR: You&amp;amp;#8217;ve also said that you&amp;amp;#8217;re not really good at casual relationships&amp;amp;#8230;. KATY PERRY: Not at all. I&amp;amp;#8217;m an emotional person. I love music that moves me and makes the hair on my arms stand up. And I want the same thing in relationships. Either you can keep up or you can&amp;amp;#8217;t. GLAMOUR: Surely you&amp;amp;#8217;ve had some awkward guy encounters over the years. KATY PERRY: When I was meeting people in L.A., guys always thought if they paid for dinner, they deserved a blow job. But generally, I&amp;amp;#8217;ll say this&amp;amp;#8212;and I&amp;amp;#8217;ll say it proudly&amp;amp;#8212;I can&amp;amp;#8217;t sleep with someone if I don&amp;amp;#8217;t have a connection with them. GLAMOUR: What are some other dumb moves guys do? KATY PERRY: Games are not really cute to me&amp;amp;#8230;although they work on everyone. [Laughs.] I like a guy who will call. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t care about that three-day rule. GLAMOUR: What about physically? What should a guy wear or look like&amp;amp;#8212; KATY PERRY: Their teeth! Oh my gosh. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t even care if they&amp;amp;#8217;re crooked. But keep &amp;amp;#8216;em clean. Floss that out! I appreciate a clean man. GLAMOUR: So tell me about Russell Brand. One of the things Russell said after he met you was &amp;amp;#8220;Katy Perry is lovely. She is the kind of girl who would skip down stairs lightly.&amp;amp;#8221; KATY PERRY: When he was filming Get Him to the Greek, I did a cameo with him. My scene called for me to make out with him. And on the way down the stairs after the scene, I was hopping like a bunny. I hop like a bunny when I&amp;amp;#8217;m happy&amp;amp;#8212;I get a bit childlike. [Laughs.] He gives me the Christmas Eve jitters. GLAMOUR: That&amp;amp;#8217;s cute&amp;amp;#8212;what do you mean by that? KATY PERRY: That feeling you had as a child. You&amp;amp;#8217;re wiggling your feet underneath the covers because something exciting is going to happen tomorrow. GLAMOUR: What does Russell have that other guys don&amp;amp;#8217;t? KATY PERRY: A vocabulary! [Laughs.] He could slay anybody with the things that he says. He doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t even need his fists. GLAMOUR: You once said you&amp;amp;#8217;d wait five more years to get married. What will make you ready to settle down? KATY PERRY: When I find a partner who is my teammate. I&amp;amp;#8217;m not going to play by any rules, I&amp;amp;#8217;m just going to go with my heart. Why wait? I just wrote a song [that goes], &amp;amp;#8220;They say it&amp;amp;#8217;s hard to meet your match, gotta find my other half so we can make a perfect shape.&amp;amp;#8221; GLAMOUR: You are so confident&amp;amp;#8212;is there any time when you feel vulnerable? KATY PERRY: I have always been this character, but I kind of cartoon-ized myself a little bit [in my stage persona]. So when someone really likes me, it&amp;amp;#8217;s like [she mimes opening a curtain] here comes a person! I wonder if you can handle this. GLAMOUR: You were giving yourself until 25 to make it, and you have. What would you be doing if you hadn&amp;amp;#8217;t? KATY PERRY: Still trying to make it. I would never give up. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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