Sam Smith identifies himself as non-binary

Los Angeles, March 16 (IANS) Singer Sam Smith reportedly divulged that he considers himself to be "non-binary" and explained how he came to this realisation.

"When I saw the non-binary, genderqueer, and I read into it, and I heard these people speaking, I was like, 'F**k, that is me'," he said.

"Non-binary, genderqueer is that you do not identify in a gender -- you are just you. You are a mixture of all different things. You are your own special creation. That's how I take it: I'm not male or female. I think I float somewhere in between. It's all on the spectrum."

He continued: "I've always been very free in terms of thinking about my sexuality, so I've just tried to change that into my thoughts on gender as well."

Elsewhere in the interview, the "Stay with Me" singer discussed his struggles with body image "from since I can remember, like since I was a baby."

He said that when he was still a child, he was "chubby" and "carried extra estrogen" in his chest, making him self-conscious to wear a bathing suit. This resulted in him getting bullied, with a classmate grabbing his chest "on the playground in front of all of his friends."

Smith went on explaining that the weight in his chest kept getting worse, so he had liposuction at age 12.

"At the time I think I was very happy about it. It did not really change anything. I think I put the weight back on in two weeks because I had not figured out my relationship with food, so it did not really change anything," he explained.

He added: "But being 12 years old and having liposuction on your chest is quite a big deal."

Talking about why he decided to open up about his struggles with body image, Sam noted: "I have not really found many men talking about this. Especially well-known men... Even doing this chat feels kind of weird, because guys don't speak about this that much on a big scale."

Following the interview, Sam took to his Twitter account to share that doing the interview "completely changed" his life.