Little Mix were told not to use word feminists: Leigh-Anne Pinnock

Singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock has revealed her girl group Little Mix was asked to not use the word "feminists" when they started their career.

The band, who found success when they won the 2011 series of UK talent show "The X Factor", have recently released several singles which support female empowerment.

''At the beginning we didn't use the word feminist. We were actually told not to just in case it was too controversial. To be fair, we were really young. I don't think we were as clued-up as we are now on things. Now we're proud to say we're feminists. We are a lot wiser. Things that happened back then really make sense now," Pinnock told Glamour magazine.

The 27-year-old singer also claimed that they were told they would not do well on the show as no girl group had won before them.

"The producers didn't want to put us through because they were saying, 'what's the point, they're not going to achieve anything, they're not going to do well, they are a girl band. But Tulisa actually stood up for us and we proved them wrong, right? We won the show! We proved them wrong.

"At the time, we didn't think too much into it but now we realise how bad that was. You can't put all women in a box like that. Who's to say we weren't going to win? Who's to say we weren't going to do well? It is these things that made us realise we need to speak up more and speak about what happened to us then," she added.