"My personality is that I'm a straight shooter — almost to a fault," Katy Perry tells PEOPLE of her judging style on American Idol

America, get ready to roar! Katy Perry is searching for the next “Kelly Clarkson.”

PEOPLE sat down with the “Swish Swish” singer at a special event hosted by a Denver Boys & Girls Club — where lucky members had the opportunity to meet, ask questions, and play Just Dance 2018 with the pop star. There she revealed just how much she plans to idolize authenticity during her first season as a judge on the American Idol reboot.

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“My personality is that I’m a straight shooter — almost to a fault,” says Perry. “I just value authenticity so much that it can sometimes get me into trouble because I take this job really seriously. I don’t want to walk away from American Idol and just have a season go by and we don’t have any Kelly Clarkson because that means we’re just filling space on television. I really truly want to be able to do this exercise and make someone’s dream come true.”

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“It’s kind of like that good old fashion American dream: we find you, you work hard, you compete, you get tested in every way and you rise to the top if it’s meant to be for you. So I believe in that great American dream.”

And aside from sitting back and judging America’s next biggest star, Perry has also been on the hunt for America’s latest and greatest Halloween costume — right from her “Witness: The Tour” ensembles!

“If I wanted to pull out a candy-type creation I could, but I think that there’s a necessary evolution. You can’t always be that one thing, and I like trying new things. I like experimenting musically, sonically, and with my sense of style. Trends change and I like to start trends, not necessarily follow them,” she says. “[I would] say there’s one costume maybe like every year that kind of like rises to the top and becomes a Halloween costume, and that’s when you know you’re doing something is when people dress as you for Halloween.”

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Making sure to “wear whatever I want,” Perry’s famed peppermint dress evolved into a crop top that lights up to display a variety of messages, including words like “kiss” and images of peppermint candy.

“I think my peppermint dress from the California Dreams tour was one of my favorite ones ’cause it was mechanical. I flipped a switch every single night I went on and the bra started spinning. Now I wear an LED bra that has all the spinning things that I’ve worn on my tatas,” she says.

“I like all my costumes now,” Perry continues of her favorite stage pieces. “I have a gold one in particular that I wear every once in a while for special occasions that makes me feel like I’m in Star Wars.”

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“My body’s changing and I’m like, ‘It’s winter, and I’m like hibernating. I’m storing the foods, I’m thick, I’m happy about it,'” she says. “There are things that I wear that sometimes I [don’t] feel like I look great in them, but you don’t have to be skin and bones.”

Thirteen Grammy nominations later, making RIAA history as the first artist to earn three Diamond Song Awards and even launching her own collection of shoes and fragrance, the “Roar” singer remembers the times when she wasn’t on top of the world.

RELATED: Katy Perry Talks Career High Super Bowl Performance & Why She Credits Humble Beginnings For Her Success: “I Never Had It Come Easily”

“I never had it come easily, and a lot of people forget sometimes that people had to work really hard to get here — especially when they’ve been around for so long they’re like, ‘Well, you were just born this way.’ It’s like, ‘Oh no, oh no,'” she says.

“I got to a point where I finally could help take care of my family a little bit, and that made me feel so good. I get to help take care of my sister and my nieces and stuff like that,” she adds. “[That] makes me feel like ‘Wow, they’re never gonna have to struggle like we did as a family growing up because all of our arguments were about money.'”

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