A fan writes: Hi Shelly =) It's always great to see a mother so supporting of her child through the thick and the thin. In reading through the questions and replies, I am amazed you have the strength to maintain such a polite composure. And I must admit, you set them straight. Christina is an impeccable artist with a very powerful voice, and will (in my mind) never be tarnished by the public's need to criticize. Speaking of, how do you and Christina handle all of these horrid rumors? I am trying to get my start as a singer, and these attacks and rumors make it very discouraging sometimes.

Christina's mom Shelly: Hello. Thank you so very much. What kindness and compassion you show, and please know that it means the world to me. Thank you.

How do I deal with it? Well, for both of us, it's both confusing and frustrating, and often hurtful. Media is bad enough, but especially when celebrities with little or no ethics tell tales of things that never, ever happened, or nasty remarks when in real life, they've never met Christina in their lives. There's no excuse for that. Fame and public attention does awful things to some people and it's sad.

But you do just what you'd do on any level in life when people around you are vicious and jealous and attack you out of insecurity. You simply stay close to God, keep telling people the truth, even when many of them obviously couldn't care less about truth or honesty, and you keep strong simply out of knowing who you are. You aren't what jealous, mean people say you are, and you know it -- whether others do or not. God knows this. You know this. People who know you, know this.

People can lie from now till the end of time, but that still doesn't change what the truth is, and it is the knowledge of that truth that enables a person to stand tall and keep their head up and keep going amidst the constant swirl of lies and gossip.

Now if some of this garbage were true, it would be a whole different story. It would make you feel embarrassed, like running and hiding or something. But it's not true, so you have peace and strength. All we can do is tell the truth. The people who insist the lies are true no matter what aren't looking for any truth to begin with, so who on earth can possibly help them until their hearts come clean? You can't force someone to believe or admit the truth about you when that is the opposite of what they are interested in.

Just keep focused on you, keep being a good hearted, decent person, close to whatever God you worship, knowing that people can't judge you, and they can't play God by judging FOR Him either, insisting they know what HE thinks of you (although they constantly do).

What is popular isn't always right, and what is right, isn't always popular. That goes strongly for beliefs and mindsets as much as it does fads.

I wish you the very best in all you do. Don't let the insecure meanies stop you from enjoying a wonderful life and from loving yourself. It's hard, because they are everywhere, they are cruel, and completely obsessed with tearing you down, but don't let them. You are beautiful. It's they who are a mess deep inside.

Much love,
Shelly