By now, you should definitely know just who Charli XCX is. At the very least, you know her voice, not just from Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy,” but from Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” and her own hit, “Boom Clap.”
She’s a punk pop star (who does not make punk music, by the way: “I make pop that’s inspired by elements of punk”) with a new album, Sucker, on the way this December. In the meantime, though, she’s hanging out on the cover of Seventeen magazine.
For the front page, Charli switches up her signature 90’s nostalgia style for something a little more soft: a texturized skirt paired with a bedazzled jean jacket. But inside the issue, we see that you can never take the grunge out of the girl as she rocks out in ripped tights and monstrous platform shoes. See some photos from her spread, along with a few excerpts below.
On dominating pop music:
“I’m going to build an empire. I’m always writing for someone else. I want to be someone who has her fingerprints all over the pop charts.”
On dating:
“I’m too busy taking over the world to have a boyfriend right now. But it’s not like a no-go or anything like that.”
What it means to be cool:
“When you’re growing up I think there’s this idea that the coolest people are the ones who are really rude and feverish. But I’ve come to realize that isn’t cool. I think the best people are the ones who are just as nice and fun. This is really cheesy, but you only have one life—why spend most of it pretending to be cool?”
On being herself:
“I spent a lot of my teenage years experimenting with who I was as a person and not really getting it right. And then I think I realized that I just had to chill out in life. Over the past year, I’ve really found peace in myself and realized that I just genuinely don’t care what people think about me. It’s so liberating.”
Whether she considers herself to be punk:
“I don’t make punk music—I make pop that’s inspired by elements of punk. For me, as a person, am I punk? In the sense that I do what I want and I enjoy going against the norm, I suppose I am.”
Read Charli’s interview in its entirety when it hits stands November 25.
PHOTO CREDIT & SOURCE: Seventeen
