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"You may not have spent the summer after your junior year in high school performing on a national concert tour and recording a much anticipated album (neither did we), but that&amp;amp;#8217;s exactly what 17-year-old Jordin Sparks has been up to since winning American Idol in May. But the fame, the fans&amp;amp;#8230;it all almost never came to pass. When she first auditioned in Los Angeles, producers rejected her, saying, &amp;amp;#8220;There&amp;amp;#8217;s something missing.&amp;amp;#8221; Sparks says she didn&amp;amp;#8217;t beat herself up over it. &amp;amp;#8220;The funny thing is, I went back to my hotel room and got a call letting me know I&amp;amp;#8217;d landed a job modeling for the plus-size store Torrid. I was so excited! It gave me the confidence to try out for Arizona Idol.&amp;amp;#8221; Winning that competition meant Sparks got sent to Seattle to audition for the national show again. Her victory on AI landed her a record deal, a new Ford Mustang and a whole lotta scrutiny over her weight. Just after her win, MeMe Roth, president of the National Action Against Obesity, went on TV to denounce Sparks as &amp;amp;#8220;the vision of unhealth.&amp;amp;#8221; Says Sparks (who, by the way, is a size 12&amp;amp;#8212;smaller than the average size-14 American woman): &amp;amp;#8220;I thought it was hilarious actually, because I exercise and I&amp;amp;#8217;m comfortable with myself. If this woman isn&amp;amp;#8217;t, then I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know what&amp;amp;#8217;s up. I am just normal!&amp;amp;#8221; Sparks swears we won&amp;amp;#8217;t be reading any how-she-lost-all-the-weight stories about her anytime soon. &amp;amp;#8220;There&amp;amp;#8217;s always that pressure, but it&amp;amp;#8217;s just a matter of whether or not you succumb to it,&amp;amp;#8221; she says. &amp;amp;#8220;I would look really weird as a size 2. Everybody needs a little meat on their bones.&amp;amp;#8221; She also doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t think curvy women should hide themselves in &amp;amp;#8220;quiet&amp;amp;#8221; clothes. &amp;amp;#8220;Don&amp;amp;#8217;t be scared of bright colors&amp;amp;#8212;they&amp;amp;#8217;re all about having fun,&amp;amp;#8221; Sparks says. One more thing she&amp;amp;#8217;s dead-set against: baggy stuff. &amp;amp;#8220;Accentuate the positive. I have a small waist, so I love wearing corset styles that define that part of my body.&amp;amp;#8221; The singer has equally strong convictions about her widely reported pledge not to have premarital sex. &amp;amp;#8220;When I was 13, my parents gave me a purity ring and talked to me about waiting until I&amp;amp;#8217;m married to have sex. It wasn&amp;amp;#8217;t forced; it just made perfect sense,&amp;amp;#8221; she says. &amp;amp;#8220;It&amp;amp;#8217;s going to be awesome to say to my husband that I waited my whole life for him.&amp;amp;#8221; When asked what she&amp;amp;#8217;ll do if she never marries, Sparks displays a teenager&amp;amp;#8217;s optimism: &amp;amp;#8220;If I never get married?! Oh my gosh, that&amp;amp;#8217;s a good question. Well, I hope I do.&amp;amp;#8221; Three more little facts about Jordin Sparks 1 Her dad, Phillippi, 38, was a star football player for the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. 2 To get that major head of hair on American Idol, she often relied on 18-inch clip-in extensions. Who knew? 3 She performed with shock rocker Alice Cooper at his 2004 Christmas charity benefit."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2007/08/jordin-sparks/2>