"Smelly Kelly" Clarkson Becomes a Hygiene Freak  7/26/05

American Idol star Kelly Clarkson has become a hygiene freak after friends dubbed her 'Smelly Kelly' when she was a teenager who didn't use deodorant.

The Breakaway singer was mortified when she learned her nickname wasn't a convenient rhyming one - and she lashed out at her mother for not being more honest with her.

She says, "One of my friends said to me, 'Dude, do you not know about deodorant?'

"Then I yelled at my mother, 'How do you not tell your daughter that she needs deodorant? How do you not do that?'

"Now I'm a hygiene freak, and I apply it (deodorant) all the time and I carry it on me."

But her childhood nickname has come in useful - it inspired her publishing company, Smelly Songs.