Demi Lovato: 'I was suicidal' at age 7

Demi Lovato is opening up a little more about her troubled past.

The star, whose father died last weekend at age 54 after a battle with cancer, graces the cover of Cosmopolitan's August issue (on stands July 9).

On Saturday, she tweeted: "Today I put my Daddy to rest.... hardest thing I've ever done.. But I know great things will come of this... #LovatoTreatmentScholarship"

And now in Cosmo, she says her struggles with bulimia and cutting and more started very early.

On her first gig at age 7 on Barney & Friends and singing the theme song: "At the time, I was just so grateful to be on TV, but I was also really struggling. Looking back, there was a connection, probably between any kid who's ever sang that song to Barney, a little place in a child's heart, a void, that could be filled. And maybe Barney fills it."

But, she says, "Even before Barney, I was suicidal. I was 7. With Barney, I guess subliminally, I did have a relationship with this figure that was saving my life in a way. … I've talked about being bullied and the years of being a teenager, but I went through things when I was younger that I've never talked about that probably caused me to turn out the way I ended up turning out."

On the lyrics from her song Warrior, which say, "There's a part of me I can't get back/ A little girl grew up too fast/ All it took was once, I'll never be the same/ Now I'm taking back my life today." She says, "My family knows what it's about. When I'm ready to open up that subject with the outside world, then I'll be free to talk about it. But right now, it's kind of one of those things where the lyrics speak for me. It's all in the song."

On the kind of star she wants to be: "If you're spending your entire early 20s chasing the next party, what are you running away from? That's not a bad---. What's a bad--- is when you can sit through your problems and feel emotions when you don't want to have them. There have been nights where I've had to sit on my hands, because I want to act out, because I physically can't sit still in the pain I'm dealing with, from looking back and being bullied or other things that happened. And now, as hard as it may be, I will do that. That's what makes me a bad---. Being a bad--- is handling your (stuff)."

On her upcoming 21st birthday (on Aug. 20): "I look at birthdays as celebrating another year of life. You've made it another year. An entire year. Some people don't make it to 21."