I don’t really have an opinion on Halsey. I think of all the younger pop stars, she has one of the better voices. I don’t mind that she mixes it up and takes weird risks with her hair and fashion. But I also think she comes across as someone rather affected and thirsty. So it’s a mixed bag. As it turns out, I didn’t know much about her either, and I ended up learned a lot about her while I read this Marie Claire cover profile. It’s worth noting that she was interviewed before her split with G-Eazy a month ago, and that she gushes about him several times in the interview. Who knows if her feelings still hold at the moment. You can read the full MC cover story here. Some highlights:
She’s multidimensional: “I’m in my 20s, so I’m evolving constantly. When I posted about my Playboy cover, someone commented, ‘Oh, you showed your t-ts in Playboy but you call yourself a feminist?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, dude. In one year, I performed at the Nobel Peace Prize [Concert] in Oslo, donated $100,000 to Planned Parenthood, got my first Grammy nomination, showed my t-ts in Playboy, and did about 150 tequila shots. I did all those things, and it’s because I’m multidimensional.”
She was diagnosed as bipolar at the age of 17: She spent 17 days in a psych ward and was put on Seroquel and later lithium, both of which she hated. “I gained, like, 30 pounds. I was throwing up at school. I spent my whole adolescence medicated.”
On how performing allows her to cope with mental illness: “I release endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine. Like, it’s literally a drug response. I don’t manage my mental illness to keep up with my lifestyle; I manage my lifestyle to keep up with my mental illness.”
She pays for everybody’s meals: “I’m a huge foodie, and I’m in the fortunate position of being able to order whatever I want. [My best friend] Payton and me used to live on f–king Hot Pockets, and now we’ve eaten caviar on three continents.”
She & G-Eazy were into “playing roles.” “If we wake up and we’re in the mood to be old-school, I’ll put on a sundress and a hat, and he’ll wear his hair slicked back and his shirt tucked in, and we’ll get in his ’65 Mustang and drive down to Malibu and go eat in a cafe by the beach and sing Amy Winehouse in the car…. I’ve had partners who don’t want to play along. It feels stupid. I love curating an experience, changing it up. And he’s so that way with me. I haven’t found someone who matches every version of me until him. Like, he’s my left sneaker. For every version of him, there’s a version of me to match.”
What is left on her bucket list? “I’ve played Madison Square Garden. I have a number-one album. I don’t have very many bucket-list things left besides carrying a child. It’s a personal goal and a weird one.”
On the idea of pregnancy: “I’m freezing my eggs at 23. My doctor’s like, ‘You’re the youngest patient I’ve ever had.’ Also, nothing like having a new partner and being like, ‘By the way, I need to know if you want to have kids right now, because if you don’t, I need to go date someone else.’ I have a very limited window of time. You know what I mean? Nothing like that to scare away a 27-year-old guy.”
Writing a new album: “Once my tour is over, I feel like anything could happen. I could decide I want to move to Italy for a year and write. I could get pregnant. I finally have enough stability in my career where I can take a breath. I feel like I can let life happen… I’m also really happy, so it’s hard. You’re almost wishing something bad would happen, but you don’t want to sabotage your life.”
Is she affected or is it that she’s 23 years old, bipolar and famous? She just seems troubled, like a Manic Pixie Dream Girl in real life. The way she’s living, I think she’s smart to freeze her eggs (for the future) and I think she’s dumb for paying for everybody in her entourage because she can’t be alone. The party doesn’t stop when Halsey is paying for everything, but what happens if the money runs out, or if she does want to be alone? And the playing roles thing… sigh. I mean, consenting adults and all of that. It’s her life, her business.
Photos courtesy of Mark Seliger for Marie Claire, sent from promotional email.
