Teen spirit: Tove Lo’s heartfelt letter to her young self

Swedish pop sensation Tove Lo radiates self-assuredness – the sort of endless confidence that allows her to, for example, nonchalantly wear a cake atop her head on national television. But she was once a teenager riddled with common insecurities.

Here, she takes a rare look back and pens a deeply personal poem to her younger self, 'Teenage Me':

I don’t like to look back on teenage me
With clouds all grey and no silver linings
Faked my way through parties and cried behind closed doors
I know all of your feelings, been trapped in them before

Teenage me is you, cause I do believe I’ve changed
When I read all of your journals it makes me sound insane
So I rather speak to you like this
Like you’re extracted from me
To stay in denial of who I was and who I came to be

The black dyed hair is gone and the stud belts are in storage
You were never really that much punk, you didn’t have the courage
You were still brave enough to go your own way and ignore whispers behind your back
You weren’t the best at anything and you hated that

Practice makes perfect and practice you tried
But the thing about perfection is you don’t reach it until you die
The pressure kept pushing deep from within
And of course from the seemingly flawless bubble you grew up in

But most of the time your head was filled with secrets
Calories, measurements and the few things you’d eaten
You spent the nights on ana forums, learned how to hide it well
Nobody could know how you put your body through hell
My feelings about you are both good and bad
I don’t wanna give you a big healing hug, I’d rather give you a slap
You grew up privileged, safe and very loved
Still your mind was a twisted place and you could be really mean and stuff

I wish you could have known how to make use of the dark
It’s the beautiful nature of a creative heart
I wish you could have known you didn’t have to cause pain
For the darkness to be valid as your inspiration

Everything you did, said, dreamed and thought
Put me on the path to the dream life I got
You always loved to say you wouldn’t live this long
That you’d be free, on your own and not someone to depend on

Lucky you’ll learn that independence is gold
But it doesn’t mean that you’re better off alone
Lucky you’ll sing everyday of your life
And against your beliefs, you’ll love being a wife

Lucky you’ll get all the attention you want
Sometimes more than you can handle but at least you’ll be an adult
Lucky you’ll have fought the body demons and healed
Cause the spotlight plus body image can be a dangerous field

Most of all it’s lucky that you won’t become jaded
That the heartaches and grey clouds all have (almost) faded
You don’t wanna hear it but in case you do
Don’t be so dramatic and remember, I love you