Lorde Covers Teen Vogue, Leaves The Black Lip At Home

For someone who was playing tiny basement venues in New York City this time last year, Lorde's second Vogue treatment in two months might be something of a record. This time around, however, she's rocking the cover instead of a one-page blurb. Teen Vogue tapped the teenaged-Kiwi-chanteuse-that-could for its May issue.

If it wasn't for her trademark mane (she says she hasn't cut her locks in seven years), Lorde's personality might've been lost to the exaggerated gingham print she wears on the cover. Even the interview shows a different, less brooding side of pop's anti-princess. She fangirled over Hilary Duff being at her concert and confessed to being feminine. "There are a lot of expectations in this industry about looking a certain way and having a certain kind of appeal. I am feminine, but I really love dressing in boys' clothes, too." she said. "I guess that's why I get labeled as 'the grumpy girl,' because I don't play into that."

True, she hasn't succumbed to the bubblegum, Disney-fied, girly-girl/sexual mold her pop star contemporaries and predecessors have. Though, that don't mean she's avoiding all controversy. One image in Gregory Harris' shoot has Lorde wearing a leather headband with a feather sticking out. Thought pieces shaming the artist and publication for appropriation will likely surface soon since we now live in an age of hyper-political awareness and sensitivity.

To which, Lorde would likely quote herself: "Don't you think it's boring how people talk / Making smart with their words again / Well, I'm bored." Or, perhaps she'll quote herself again and simply cast it off with the last words of her debut album, Pure Heroine: "Let them talk."

"My life is so wild right now," Lorde told Teen Vogue. "For me to be able to do something I really enjoy and for that to get me out in the world — to South America, to here, to London — every day I kick myself, I'm so lucky."

Head on over to Teen Vogue for more photos from Lorde's cover shoot and be sure to pick up the full interview when Teen Vogue hits newsstands April 29.