Lorde: Not Your Standard Pop Princess

How New Zealand singer is not your standard pop princess.

ByABC News
April 3, 2014, 3:47 PM

April 3, 2014— -- intro: Lorde may sit atop the pop charts, but the 17-year-old New Zealand singing sensation is hardly your typical pop princess.

Despite her meteoric rise to stardom, which included winning two Grammys earlier this year, Lorde has no problem speaking her mind or admitting her flaws.

Lorde Reveals Untouched Photos of Her Face: 'Flaws Are OK'

"I know who I am," the singer, born Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O'Connor, told Canada's Fashion magazine for its May issue.

Who she is, is someone breaking the mold for female pop stars. Keep reading to find out how Lorde stands out from her pop peers.

quicklist:title: She's Not Afraid of Her Flawstext: This past weekend, Lorde tweeted a photo snapped during her recent concert in Chile -- one version retouched and showing her with smooth, picture-perfect skin, and the other showing her as a natural beauty, exposing bumps, acne and all.

"i find this curious," Lorde wrote on March 30 to her more than 1.3 million followers, "two photos from today, one edited so my skin is perfect and one real. remember flaws are ok :-)"

A couple months ago, she went even further, posting a not-so-glamorous photo on Instagram with acne cream all over face, which seemingly struck a chord: The post garnered more than 119,000 likes.

quicklist:title: She's Not Afraid to Call Herself a 'Feminist'text: Last September, Lorde, calling herself a feminist, criticized Selena Gomez's song "Come and Get It" as being "so pathetic," saying, "I don't think girls should be listening to that kind of thing and I don't think that is normal or healthy." She added, "I'm sick of women being portrayed this way."

quicklist:title: She Won't Be Getting Naked for a Videotext: While Lorde isn't calling out any of her pop peers -- ahem, such as Miley Cyrus -- for using their sexuality, she has no plans to join them anytime soon.

"I'm a hugely sex-positive person and I have nothing against anyone getting naked," she told V Magazine at the end of 2013. "For me, personally, I just don't think it really would complement my music in any way or help me tell a story any better."

She added that it's just not for her.

"It's not like I have a problem with dancing around in undies. I think you can use that stuff in a hugely powerful way," she said. "It just hasn't felt necessary for me."

quicklist:title: She Can't Dancetext: Unlike a lot of other pop stars, Lorde doesn't have a team of choreographers to teach her the latest moves or a bunch of backup dancers to disguise her own lack of moves. Instead, she's not afraid to admit that she's a pretty weird dancer.

"When i'm onstage, i don't think about how it looks, i just concentrate on really feeling what i hear," she wrote to fans during a Reddit Monday in December 2013. "But i totally know i look like gollum when i perform, so it's cool."

So what if Lorde compared herself to a hairless, bug-eyed creature from the "Hobbit" movies? She has a lot of people talking about her dance moves and even trying to imitate them.

quicklist:title: Her Role Models Aren't Other Pop Princessestext: If Lorde isn't like other pop stars, it could be because they are not her role models.

"I'm drawn to women who aren't painted in history as sweet figures," she told Fashion magazine. "Patti Smith was prickly. She was frustrated. She didn't take people's s***. There's no better music idol for young women, because there is a lot of pressure for us to be really positive all the time. Every photo shoot I do, I get asked for big smiles, and I shouldn't have to be that way."