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" Just three short years after winning the fourth season of  American Idol , 25-year-old Carrie Underwood has seemingly undergone a radical transformation \u2014 from a shy, plainly dressed girl from Checotah, Oklahoma, to a chart-topping singer who performs in front of massive sold-out stadium crowds, sporting sexy above-the knee boots and black mini shorts. The keyword here is  seemingly.  The second she wraps her Cosmo cover shoot at a New York City photo studio, the petite blond sheds the designer duds that she&amp;#039;s been expertly posing in and slips into her own clothes: loose-fitting gray sweatpants, a blue hoodie sweatshirt, and white sneakers. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t consider myself sexy,&amp;quot; she says in her soft Southern voice. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m kind of a nervous person in general. I&amp;#039;m socially awkward. I&amp;#039;m not tall and sensuous. I usually wear sweats everywhere I go. Oh, and I burp a lot.&amp;quot;  Though it&amp;#039;s hard at first to believe that Carrie is truly that, well, normal and unpolished, she is intent on driving the point home.&amp;quot; That  person [onstage] says the right things and does the right things. And you know,  that  person&amp;#039;s cool.  This  person&amp;#039;s not,&amp;quot; Carrie says, pointing to herself.&amp;quot; This person is human.&amp;quot;   Her relatability is part of what has earned Carrie such a huge fan base so quickly. Her 2005 debut album,  Some Hearts,  achieved seven-times-platinum status and was the first to become Billboard&amp;#039;s top female country album for two consecutive years. Her most recent release,  Carnival Ride,  which debuted at number one this past October, has gone multiplatinum. (She finished touring with Keith Urban in April and will continue to hit various national venues solo all the way through September.) The title of the record, says Carrie, describes &amp;quot;the wonderful craziness I&amp;#039;ve been through over the past couple of years.&amp;quot; No doubt her romantic life played a part in that wild ride. Last year, she was briefly linked to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. And she recently split from her boyfriend of eight months, Gossip Girl hottie Chace Crawford. The two reportedly met when he approached her at Hollywood club Hyde in May 2007, and he later visited her during her tour and introduced her to his family over the holidays. According to Carrie, the breakup was completely mutual and happened via text message. &amp;quot;It was like &amp;#039;peace out....&amp;#039; We both knew it didn&amp;#039;t work and [have] no hard feelings whatsoever,&amp;quot; she has said. Rest assured, there&amp;#039;s no need to worry about Carrie&amp;#039;s postbreakup emotional state. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m a suck-it-up-and-move-on kind of person,&amp;quot; she says matter-of-factly between bites of a veggie sandwich and a plate of fresh fruit. &amp;quot;Every day is a new day, and you&amp;#039;ll never be able to find happiness if you don&amp;#039;t move on.&amp;quot; Besides, there&amp;#039;s little time to wallow. At press time, the three-time Grammy Award winner was scheduled to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry (a prestigious group of country music&amp;#039;s most successful artists) in May and to perform at the Country Music Association Music Festival in June. When she does finally step back from her whirlwind schedule and take a much-deserved break, Carrie plans to spend time with friends in her adopted hometown of Nashville. &amp;quot;I love going out to clubs. Granted, I don&amp;#039;t get hammered or do anything to embarrass myself. I&amp;#039;d call myself wholesome\u2026but it&amp;#039;s not like I only drink milk,&amp;quot; says Carrie, who describes herself as a guys&amp;#039; girl. &amp;quot;I like the things they like. I&amp;#039;m girlie in the sense that I like makeup, but I also love sports and man food. With guys, there&amp;#039;s no competition. Being around them just isn&amp;#039;t as threatening.&amp;quot; When it comes to the dating scene, however, Carrie finds that dealing with the opposite sex is much more challenging. &amp;quot;In the romantic sense, I&amp;#039;m pretty useless with guys,&amp;quot; she admits. &amp;quot;If I see somebody who I&amp;#039;m attracted to, generally I just think, Oh well, he&amp;#039;s not interested in me. The only time that I talk to guys is when they talk to me first.&amp;quot; A beat later, she adds, &amp;quot;But I can play the game. I can turn it on.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s clear that Carrie&amp;#039;s relationship perspective is in a state of evolution, and she&amp;#039;s hell-bent on not repeating past mistakes. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve [often] been the one who took care of the other person. But now I&amp;#039;ve learned to take charge. I&amp;#039;ve become a little more bratty. I&amp;#039;m tired of doing all the spoiling. I deserve to be spoiled too! I want to be appreciated. It&amp;#039;s the chivalry thing and the extra attention that I like. Don&amp;#039;t even get me started on how many guys don&amp;#039;t do that,&amp;quot; she says, rolling her eyes. Another thing Carrie is seeking in a potential mate: a healthy dose of self-confidence. &amp;quot;This guy I dated would get mad at me if I even mentioned that another guy was cute. I mean, that doesn&amp;#039;t mean you want to sleep with the guy or anything!&amp;quot; When asked whether she&amp;#039;s at all like the vengeful girl in her mega hit song &amp;quot;Before He Cheats,&amp;quot; Carrie says, without any hesitation: &amp;quot;Cheating is a deal breaker. If you cheat, you&amp;#039;re gone.&amp;quot; But would she ever take a Louisville Slugger to both headlights of an unfaithful guy&amp;#039;s car, as described in her lyrics? &amp;quot;Getting revenge on a guy is just not worth it to me. I mean, it definitely sucks at the time, but obviously you&amp;#039;re not supposed to be with that person,&amp;quot; she says, a sly smile creeping across her face. &amp;quot;The best revenge I can think of is becoming famous.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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