At just 15 years old, Grace VanderWaal doesn’t remember a time without social media. But the America’s Got Talent season 11 winner sometimes wishes she could—since she’s seen firsthand the stresses it can bring.

“I think that insecurities, especially in girls, are really affected because of social media,” she tells Parade. “I don’t think it’s because of cyber bullying or mean comments, but the need for validation. We’ve grown up getting more and more likes and if you don’t get as many likes as you want, you have to take it down.”

Related: One Dad Is Going Viral in His Quest to Protect His Daughters From Social Media—Here’s His Message to All Parents Everywhere

While Instagram just unveiled a trial in Australia where they are hiding the number of likes a photo gets to relieve some of that pressure, VanderWaal hopes that through her music, fans start to remember what makes them them—without feeling like a comment or a like has to define them.

“The more comments you get, the more you start to rely on those rather than the comments you tell yourself,” she says. “My song ‘UR So Beautiful‘ is not just me telling you you’re beautiful, it’s you being able to tell yourself that you’re beautiful and really feeling it.”

Here, the Suffern, N.Y., native tells us how she takes a break from social media, her tour must-haves (her 23-city Ur So Beautiful headlining tour kicks off Aug. 10!) and why mental health awareness is important to her.

On mental health

I definitely want more awareness on mental health, and why we’re facing the epidemic that we are today. There are many different causes, but I think it’s definitely social media. I don’t think it’s affected us very well. I think that there are a lot of issues and trends that enable people to make decisions before really [thinking it through.]

Related: Kate, William, Meghan and Harry Launch Mental Health Crisis Text Line

On social media

I think the scariest part of social media is that it’s very, very misunderstood. I don’t think many people realize that it’s affecting them when it’s affecting them. And you don’t really realize it until you are able to take yourself out of it for a second and kind of self-reflect, which is really difficult to do.

On taking breaks

Even if I went on social media for 15 minutes in one day, that was all I needed—and I think that once I realized that, that’s when I stopped relying on it so much.

Related: Why Your Favorite Fitness Social Media Accounts Could Be Hurting Your Self Esteem

On preferring phone calls over texting

I love phone calls—they’re underrated. I will take phone calls over texting all the time. I just feel like if you’re texting, you just go straight to the point, but with phone calls, you could get off track and randomly say things that you probably wouldn’t text. It’s more personal.

Tour must-haves

A sweater and my dog, Frankie. He always sleeps with me, and waits on the bus for me!

On missing out on regular teen life

It kind of sucks sometimes. But I always think that this is a very, very small sacrifice when I look at my life. There’s so many people who can’t have their passion as their job, and it’s pretty incredible that I get to do that. So, who cares if I miss some teen party?