Marie Osmond has been a household name ever since she was a child yet, yet she has somehow managed to evade many of the pitfalls that many child stars find themselves facing. In a new interview, the 61 year-old singer is crediting the way she was raised as well as her “belief in God” for helping her not succumb to the temptations that many child stars do.

“I think it starts with family. My mother saved me,” Osmond told Fox News. “I remember when I was doing ‘Donny & Marie,’ I was about 17 at the time. I was working 17,18 hour days and we had to memorize 350-page scripts in two and a half days. It was a lot of work and I went to school so I would come home late at night. I remember one time I said, ‘Mother, I have to go to bed. We’re taping in the morning and I need to look good.'”

“She goes, ‘You have chores to do.’ And I said, ‘Mother, I’m like Marie Osmond.’ *laughs*. She said, “Really? Well, you can clean the toilet too. [TV] is your job. This is reality,'” Osmond recalled. “I think the way my parents raised me and my belief in God made all the difference. You have to look at the big picture and see what’s important. But you’re right, not a lot of people make it.”

Just because Osmond’s parents and faith got her through life, however, it does not mean things were easy for her.

“And look, life wasn’t always easy. I’ve dealt with abuse,” she recalled. “But… I didn’t want my past to define my future. The best way to not let the past define you is to live positively for the future and to make the best choices for you. Giving back has always been important in my career, too.”

As for what she would tell her younger self, Osmond said, “I would tell her she’s going to have a wonderful life. You can either sit on all the negatives and worry about the what-ifs, or you can take care of yourself, the incredible body that God gave you.”

“We’re all different. It’s the comparing that makes us miserable,” she added. “I tell my kids today, ‘Don’t worry about a relationship. Figure out who you are first. Learn about yourself and discover what’s best for you first so you don’t become something for someone else.'”

“Your 20s should be the most beautiful moments of your life, a time of self-discovery,” Osmond concluded. “Use that time to care for yourself, figure out who you are. That’s what I would tell my younger self. Just love life more, quit worrying so much about the external and focus more on the internal.”