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It's hard to imagine Natasha Bedingfield -- beautiful, successful It Girl who's taking the U.S. charts by storm these days -- being insecure.

Her face, delicate features framed by blonde locks and mischievous eyes, is plastered on magazine covers and newspaper celebrity pages around the world. Her sensual frame sways and dances on late-night talk shows and MTV videos. Her voice, honey-sweet and set against infectious beats, wafts across airwaves and digital computer streams.

Still, she told The Daily Times during a recent phone interview, she has her moments of self-doubt and low self-esteem.

"I have my own insecurities," she said. "When I was younger, I was much more insecure than I am now. I feel like I've been finding myself. We're all on that search, but it's harder for girls because of the emphasis everyone places on body image.

"As you get older, you feel like your confidence shouldn't come from how you look; it should come from the inside. It's one of those things that I don't want to care too much about how I look."

Of course, given that she looks like a model, it can be argued that it's easy for Bedingfield to say that. And she freely admits to enjoying the ability to dress up and look pretty -- she sees it, she said, as an extension of her creativity.

"I can be artistic in the way I dress and look," she said. "Fashion is fun -- I love how you can be expressive with it. Besides, everyone loves having attention, and everyone likes to feel special and like a VIP sometimes. But there are definitely times when you don't want attention.

"There are times when I wish everyone would just ignore me. For example, after our gig yesterday -- we were leaving town, and I went into a gas station, and I just wanted to pick out some food. But those are the moments when people cram in on your space, because they're excited to recognize you and see you. That's when you realize your job doesn't stop when you get off stage."

Even though Bedingfield has been on stages since she was a teenager, nothing could have prepared her for her current stardom. The daughter of two charity workers, she was encouraged to pursue music by her parents, and as a teen, she formed the dance-pop group DNA Algorithm with her brother Daniel and sister Nikola. A Christian-oriented band, the group played at various festivals throughout her native England before disbanding.

After attending the University of Greenwich for a year, she left to focus on music. Recording demos with friends, she approached several record companies before signing a contract with Sony BMG in 2003. A year later, her first album, "Unwritten," was released, featuring catchy pop-rock songs with R B overtones. It sold well, reaching No. 1 in the United Kingdom and the top 30 in the United States, as well as earning her a 2007 Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

The album's first single ("Single") did reasonably well in the U.K.; it's follow-up, "These Words," went to No. 1 in England to the Top 20 in the States. The album's third single, however, was a runaway smash -- "Unwritten," written as a birthday song to her brother, became the most-played song on U.S. radio in 2006.

From that point forward, Bedingfield's momentum seemed -- and still seems -- unstoppable. And nothing she had done up to that point could have prepared her for the accompanying fame, she said.

"Oh, I absolutely have those am-I-dreaming moments," she said. "This has been my life for four or five years now, but before that, with both of my parents being social workers, I was focusing on helping people and helping kids. I got involved in all sorts of musical things, but I never thought about it as a career.

"My parents are still involved in charity work. They have an amazing charity called Global Angels, and getting involved with that keeps me sane. It's hard to receive, I feel, unless you also give, and by helping other people, it helps you."

Last year, Bedingfield released her second album in Europe, "N.B." With a broader range of influences, it's found modest overseas success but was retooled for a U.S. release. She even went so far as to rename the album -- "Pocketful of Sunshine" -- before putting it out in the United States back in January, after which the title track became a top five single.

"I had gone on the Justin Timberlake tour all around Europe, and by the time we were ready to release 'N.B.' in the States, I had already written new songs," she said. "When we put it out in Europe, I didn't know what to call the album, so I just called it 'N.B.' We talked about it, and I wanted it to have a better name, so we thought putting it out as 'Pocketful of Sunshine' in the States would be a nice opportunity for an update."

Bedingfield's U.S. tour to support "Sunshine" has been ongoing for most of the year. Tonight, she performs at The Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville, and this fall, she's slated to be the opening act on the reunited New Kids on the Block tour. It's an honor that confirms what a fairy tale her life can be at times, she said.

"One of the big things about that tour is that we're performing at places like Madison Square Garden (in New York) and the Staples Center (in Los Angeles), and I've always dreamt about singing at those places," she said. "That ... the headlining tour ... the tour buses with my face on it ... having a song like 'Unwritten,' which I wrote as a birthday present for my younger brother, being the most-played pop song of 2006 ... it's really nice to be in the driver's seat and realize that this is my life."

It's not always an easy life -- the constant pressure of being in the spotlight, especially in the savage world of paparazzi-driven press barrages in London and, to a lesser extent, the United States, can be a constant trigger for those aforementioned insecurities. For every flattering photograph in a magazine, there's another taken from 100 yards away with a telephoto lens focused on the slightest blemish or hint of cellulite, and it can be brutal seeing and reading such snarky comments.

"It seems a lot of times, they want to build someone up just to tear them down, but it's also interesting -- I think a lot of fans like knowing you're normal," she said. "They like to see stars with cellulite, because then they can think, 'Oh, cool -- it's not just me.

"But yeah, sometimes it feels like I can't get any privacy. Fortunately, I've built up a good team around me. They're very normal, and I'm very good at blending in."

Limited privacy and unexpected photo ambushes aside, it's still a good time to be Natasha Bedingfield. And she looks forward to more experiences -- in music and in life.

"I'm quite a hungry person ... well, maybe ambitious is a better word," she said. "I achieve a goal and just want to see what's next. It's good to be content, but at the same time, I like to be a little uncomfortable, to be on the edge, because I think that's when I push myself and grow.

"I think people who want to learn are always going to stay young -- at heart, at least -- so I always want to have a hunger to learn new things."