Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles: I'm Critical of My Body, Parenting, & Being a Mom

Jennifer Nettles strikes a pose in a Mason dress on the cover of Redbook magazine’s March 2014 issue.

Here’s what the 39-year-old Sugarland singer had to share with the mag:

On her solo album That Girl topping the charts: “It makes me feel vulnerable to put myself out there in a new way. You hope your fans have evolved with you and that the music will gain new fans too! You do your best, but you never know. The warm and positive response to this album has been simultaneously inspiring, motivating, and a relief. Now I want to get out there and give the fans a beautiful and intimate performance of these songs live on tour.”

On being in the spotlight: “Perfectionism is really a challenge for me, and it causes me to be super-critical of myself in so many ways: about body image constantly; about parenting; about being a mother. For me, that’s still my most important job, ever, and I don’t want to mess it up. And yet, there’s no perfect way to do it! You know? It’s important to have an examined life�”but it’s a fine line between having an examined life and being hypercritical of oneself. There has to be balance in there somewhere. I haven’t found it yet. When I do, I’ll let you know.”

On why she loved Miranda Lambert‘s tweet, “Knowing what you want doesn’t make you a b*tch”: “I think that we are so challenged as women to be everything, and do everything, and make it look easy. Also to speak our minds, but not be bitchy. All these things are, quite frankly, impossible to achieve. So knowing what we want�”no, it doesn’t make us a bitch. It makes us know what we want, plain and simple.”

For more from Jennifer, visit Redbookmag.com.