Sara Bareilles Says She Lets Herself Be ‘Flawed’ as She Turns 44: ‘There Is Freedom in That’ (Exclusive)

The singer and actress turned 44 on Thursday, the same day her movie 'Waitress: The Musical,' hit theaters

Sara Bareilles is embracing her imperfections as she celebrates another birthday.

The “Brave” singer, who turned 44 on Thursday, tells PEOPLE what she’s learned about herself over the past year.

“I'm more impatient than I like to admit. I just have more flaws than I really think I should,” says the Grammy winner. “And there's something really freeing about just letting yourself be flawed, that if I put down the perfectionism, there is actually more liberation and freedom in that than shame.”

“And that's been a revelation for me, that there's actually – it's easier and more fun to be not the person who's right all the time and doesn't have all the answers,” she continues, “It's like, ‘I don't know, let's try this. I could be wrong.’ It makes things a little bit more fun and more playful.”

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Bareilles, who recently moved to Brooklyn, New York, with her fiancé, actor Joe Tippett, 41, and her 2-year-old dog, Louie, adds that she’s been contemplative as of late.

“I'm thinking about a lot of deep questions about identity and what it means to be in a real partnership. And I have this little dog next to me. It's like parenthood. It's like all of the things are really in the foreground, and I think it's really interesting stuff,” she says.

The "Love Song" hitmaker has been doing, “lots of thinking, lots of meditating, lots of therapy, lots of long walks," she says. "I'm growing up, growing up finally.”

Getting older has been on her mind recently. Last month, Bareilles opened up on Instagram, saying she had been "crying for the past 36 hours" due to old insecurities about body issues resurfacing.

"I’ve been a little bit in the public eye about aging. And I’m at a lot of crossroads in my life about where I’m at — I turn 44 in a few weeks. And I want to be someone who is willing to be exactly who I am,” she told her followers.

“I want my body to get to do what my body’s doing as I age. I want my face to get to do what my face is doing. I want to stop fixating on some unattainable sort of bulls--- beauty standard. I want it to stop taking up so much space in my brain. And I want to talk about it," she added.

Bareilles now tells PEOPLE the response to her video was positive.

"Well, per usual, every time I share something that feels really true and honest and vulnerable, it is such a great source for connection and a reminder that you're never alone whatever your perceived outlier feelings are. You are usually in the majority," she says.

While Bareilles is making peace with that, she's also counting her blessings: Thursday, her birthday, also marked the first day of Waitress: The Musical’s five-day theatrical run. Bareilles wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway hit, and in the fall of 2021, she played the lead role for several weeks.

One of those performances was filmed for the special release.

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“I can't believe we're in the situation where we actually get to see this movie in theaters. It just feels like a total gift,” she says.

Bareilles took to Instagram Thursday to express her excitement and document how she surprised fans at a New York City screening.

“Ok I’m backstage at the AMC theater in Lincoln Square and I’m about to go surprise the audience at the very first showings of Waitress: The Musical movie tonight - opening night I can’t wait!” she said in a selfie video.

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Moments later, she walked out to the front of the filled theater to cheers and applause and introduced the movie.

Based on the 2007 dramedy of the same name, Waitress tells the story of small town diner sever Jenna (Bareilles) who’s stuck in a loveless marriage with the overbearing Earl (Tippett). After learning she’s pregnant, she falls for her charming ob-gyn (Drew Gehling).

Waitress: The Musical is in movie theaters until Dec. 12.

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