Janet Jackson. (Reuters file photo)

Janet Jackson has revealed the pressure on famous women to look good and stay slim is so intense, some stars eat tissue to stop hunger pangs.

The singer is open about her own longstanding issues with food and her weight, insisting she is an emotional eater whose problems with self-esteem stem from her time as a child actor on hit TV show Good Times.

During a candid interview with CNN's Piers Morgan, Jackson admits famous females are falling victim to the pressure of looking perfect all the time due to constant scrutiny, and insists some of her peers push their body to the limits to maintain their figure.

She tells the newsman, "It's crazy, it's crazy. That's why I think a lot of the women today swing in the opposite direction. They're under eating. Some of the stories I hear... I'm not going to name names (but) this is the worst. Eating tissue, Kleenex, so it fills the stomach. So you're full. So you don't want another bite to eat and so that's what you eat."

And Jackson is adamant focusing on famous women's weight has a negative affect on young fans.

She adds, "It's crazy. So then for the kids, for them to look up and think this is what I want to look like or think they have to look like and want to go on a diet from a very young age and not living life as a kid. I was told at a very young age on Good Times that I needed to go on a diet, I was only 11, 12. I look back on those shows and I wasn't a heavy kid. And like I said, some people can brush it right off but others, they internalize it. That was me."