Ella Yelich-O’Connor, the subversive-for-being-normal antipodean teen royalty you, your mother, and your elitist best friend can feel totally fine about listening to has had an incredible breakout year in which the following things have happened: released her debut album, Pure Heroine, released a number one song, “Royals”, in multiple countries, knocked off Miley like a wrecking ball, met Tilda Swinton and David Bowie (has the photo to prove it), had her songs remixed by Raekwon and Rick Ross, hung out with Tavi, played live on Later With Jools Holland, got some of that Catching Fire money, soundtracked the victory speech of New York City mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, and now, landed atop Time Magazine’s 16 most influential teens of 2013 list.
Joining thy Lorde is New Zealand’s 16 year old golfing prodigy Lydia Ko, Summly app creator Nick D’Aloisio, life-affirming Nobel Peace Prize nominee Malala Yousafzai, as well as actresses including Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka, True Grit’s Hailee Steinfeld and the Kick-Ass franchise’s Chloe Grace Moretz and literary prodigies in Beth Reekles (The Kissing Booth) and Maya Van Wagenen (Popular: One Geek’s Quest For The Impossible), whose book about following antiquated tips from a 1950s self-help tome landed her a six-figure deal at Penguin Publishing and was last month optioned by DreamWorks.
Justin Bieber and sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner were also identified as teenage monoliths of influence for their invaluable contributions to the fields of secretly paying people to have sex with you/bed sheet disguises and absorbing fame via osmosis/endorsing things on Instagram.
Really resisting the urge to wrap this up by posting a super appropriate Lo-Tel video. Fuck it. Here it is.
Lorde was just four when that was released :/
