Lorde Explains How She Managed Conversations About Body Image When She Was a Teenager

While being in the public eye comes with its fair share of scrutiny, Lorde says she laid the groundwork to quel some of that scrutiny when she was a teenager, especially when it comes to the issue of body image.

In a new interview with the Irish Times, the New Zealand native said that she kicked body image “out of the conversation” when she was beginning her career.

“I was pretty intent about that,” the 24-year-old said. “I didn’t want people to be talking about what my body looked like. I was a kid. And I really wasn’t ‘in’ my body. As a teenager, you kind of wear your body like an outfit that doesn’t fit yet.”

The singer, whose upcoming album Solar Power drops on Friday, shared that conversations around body image were “definitely was something I very specifically did not invite” and that she had “healthy boundaries” as a teenager.

“I think it all worked out. How my body looks is not a big center of curiosity now, which I think is in part because of the grounding I lay as a teenager,” she explained. “So yeah – I feel good about ‘baby’ me doing that for ‘future’ me.”

Lorde added that she chose to wear suits as a kid in the spotlight, because that’s what she felt comfortable in and that’s what she felt “powerful in.”

“The fact that I sort of did it in a way that felt right for me – that meant I don’t look back and feel fucked up by it,” she said.

Lorde also discussed her upcoming third album in a new Wall Street Journal profile, sharing that she opted for a theater tour in order to keep things more intimate for her fans. The tour heads to the U.S. in April and closes out in the U.S. in Santa Barbara, California in May, with additional international dates to follow.

“It’s exactly where I want to be,” Lorde said. “I would much rather have a room with 5,000 people in it who know every word to every song and are passionate about me as an institution—than have 18,000 people who heard two songs on the radio and liked them.”