Lorde got real about the body shaming she faced when “Royals” came out, and how she overcame it

We can’t imagine what it must be like to become wildly famous at just 16 years old, and now Lorde has opened up about the body shaming she experienced when she released her first album, and it’s depressingly unsurprising and totally unacceptable.

The singer, who releases her second album Meldorama today (June 16th), was speaking to NME about the experience of when she first released “Royals,” the track that propelled her to global superstardom, and it sounds like nothing could have prepared her for what she was about to experience.

“When it was happening, I was quite overwhelmed by it. But that was a long time ago,” Lorde said about what it was like to become famous so quickly at only 16. “If anything, I’ve slowly been getting less famous since ‘Royals’ was really big. Which is totally cool for me… I suck at being famous. And that’s fine.”

Indeed, the New Zealand-born singer said that the success of royals “rocked [her] foundations.”

“[It] could have fucked me, you know?” she recalled. “I remember being made aware of my looks and my body in a way that I had never been.”

Much of this body shaming came from people online, specifically from other “stan” communities, who are known to be viciously loyal to their favorite artists to the point of offence to others.

the singer recounted. “I remember being like, ‘Whoa! How did I get all this way without knowing I had far-apart eyes?’ Just weird shit like that.”

It took returning home to her family in New Zealand for the singer to find peace and to get over the trolling. “I feel so comfortable in myself,” she said.

Meanwhile, Lorde has just released her brand new album Melodrama. The record, which was proceeded by the dance pop single “Green Light,” and is already receiving rave reviews from critics and fans alike.

Seems like Lorde won’t late the haters hold her down!