Lorde Is More Confident Than Ever After Struggling With Self-Love As A Teen: 'I Have A Sense Of My Worth & My Power'
At just 16 years old, Lorde became an overnight sensation when she released her hit track "Royals." But with the success came the downfalls of fame — most notably, online bullies.
"When you're really famous as a young person, feelings get magnified," the singer explained to Vogue. "At that time, people were discussing my body on Twitter, and the natural response was to shrink away from it."
Now 24, the New Zealand native shared, "I have a sense of my worth and my power — and my body is awesome, for one thing. But it's also not as central as my brain is to the whole operation."
The crooner discussed her growth with the magazine after the August release of "Solar Power," an album that made her feel "young for the first time."
"When I said I felt young for the first time — it meant feeling like I'm confident enough to put my butt out there," she noted, referencing the disc's artwork, in which she shows off her backside in bikini bottoms. "I wouldn't have been able to do that as a teenager."
"I don't think you could make me feel bad about myself now by saying something about my body," she insisted. "But that's the difference between 16 and 24."
She proved as much at this year's Met Gala, wearing nothing underneath her unfastened jacket.
Though she's now comfortable in her skin, she admitted that she still doesn't love living in the spotlight.
"I'm great at my job, but I'm not sure I'm the man for the job," she confessed. "I'm a highly sensitive person. I'm not built for pop star life."
"To have a public-facing existence is something I find really intense and is something I'm not good at," continued the "Green Light" singer. "That natural charisma is not what I have. I have the brain in the jar."
Luckily, she's been able to find a manageable balance between living her personal life and being a famous figure, pointing out that she often takes long breaks in between tours or album releases.
Explained the Grammy winner, "For whatever reason people have allowed me to say, OK, I'm going to come and do the thing— do the shoot, do the red carpet, speak to the journalists, put the music out — and when I've done it to the point of total exhaustion, when I have completely quenched that thirst — I'm going to go home, and you're not going to see me for two or three or four years." Whatever works!