Thornton joined the girl group in 2003 when she was just 19 years old. The Pussycat Dolls disbanded in 2010, though they officially reunited in 2019, sans Thornton.

Following her departure from the group, Thornton has pursued a career as a solo artist, independently releasing her debut mixtape, P.O.Y.B.L., in 2012, which was followed by a string of one-off singles. She has returned with her latest EP, Lioness Eyes, her first project in eight years. It dropped in early August, and last week the powerhouse singer was on Entertainment Tonight to discuss her career journey and the real life circumstances that inspired the record.

“Getting into the group, I was really conscious of the way that society puts Black women in boxes, you know, using stereotypes to describe Black women. “I’m coming into the situation [as] the one Black and brown girl in a group of mostly Caucasian women,” Thornton, who is Black and Mexican descent, said. “I was really conscious to smile every time I was photographed with girls.” 

Thornton states that she felt this way because Mel B of The Spice Girls was given the “Scary Spice” moniker. 

“Before The Pussycat Dolls, was The Spice Girls. The one thing that stood out was why [does] the Black girl got to be scary? I did not want to be ‘Scary Doll’, so I was really conscious to smile as often as possible and hope that people would get to know me before these preconceived notions,” she said. Thornton recalled having to make sure there was a Black makeup artist on hand when she first joined the girl group.

“It was ‘pick some people and let’s go.’ I understand not wanting my everybody else to feel that I was being treated with favoritism, but that’s not what’s going on,” she said. “You need makeup artists that understand this skin tone [and] how not to make it ashy.” She recalled “being sent to different hair people,” which led to her hair falling out at one point.

RELATED: Tinashe Calls Out Music Industry For Performative Response To Black Lives Matter

Despite the trials and tribulations, Thornton is grateful to have reached this point in her career. Coming from a major label, she said her experience in The Pussycat Dolls did leave her in a limbo as to who she was as a singer. But Lioness Eyes allowed her to discover herself artistically. With Lioness Eyes out, Thornton said she would love to appear in a movie and go on a tour next.

“There’s been tears of joy. There’s been moments where I’m like ‘Oh my god!’ and just so overwhelmed,” she said. “I’m an independent artist, so I’m self-funded, and I’ve had to make some really serious sacrifices so I’m really, really happy,” she said. “All of the music is exactly the way I would say it with loads of passion of soul. I come from a world that was very this is what you’re going to say, this what you’re going to sing, and this is who you are going to be.’” 

That freedom came with some financial sacrifices she had to make in order to produce the album, including selling her home and car. She stowed away her personal belongings in storage and began traveling and performing across the globe. The money she earned on the road went towards financing Lioness Eyes.

“I lived on tour. I never bought anything for years. Like three to six years of just being away from family. [I] missed every Christmas probably for the last three years,” she elaborated. “It [was] a different bed every single night. I would stay with my best friend in between trips. So, like three weeks at a time, I’d sleep on his couch and then get back out on the road. This went on for years.” 

She prefaced that by clarifying she didn't want this to be a “mini violin situation” as she’s been “very blessed” where others have not. 

“It’s okay. These are the types of things you go through if you commit to ‘I’m gonna fund this properly’ and ‘I’m gonna give it everything I got.’ I have friends and family, and I will always have a place to go, for sure. But they knew how committed I was to this.”