A number of actors and musicians talk about being highly sensitive, and how this trait that about 20% of us share, can help be more creative, but also can bring emotional challenges.
Musician Lorde commented about being an artist with a high level of fame:
“I’m great at my job, but I’m not sure I’m the man for the job.
“I’m a highly sensitive person. I’m not built for pop star life.
“To have a public-facing existence is something I find really intense and is something I’m not good at.
“That natural charisma is not what I have. I have the brain in the jar.”
But she has found ways to take care of her needs for privacy and renewal as a sensitive person.
She said that “for whatever reason people have allowed me to say, Okay, I’m going to come and do the thing—do the shoot, do the red carpet, speak to the journalists, put the music out—and when I’ve done it to the point of total exhaustion, when I have completely quenched that thirst, I’m going to go home, and you’re not going to see me for two or three or four years.
“I’ll be doing the other thing, which is being there for every single birthday and dinner party and cooking every single meal and going on every single walk and taking every single bath.
“And when I’ve done that, and I’m like, all right, that’s enough of that for a little while, I’ll come back again.”
From article Good Lorde! Behind the Blissed-Out Comeback of a Pop Iconoclast By Rob Haskell, Vogue, September 8, 2021.
(A Wikipedia page notes “Lorde’s accolades include two Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards, and a Golden Globe nomination. She appeared in Time’s list of the most influential teenagers in 2013 and 2014, and the 2014 edition of Forbes 30 Under 30. In addition to her solo work, she has co-written songs for other artists, including Broods and Bleachers. As of June 2017, Lorde has sold over five million albums worldwide.”)
Megan Johnson writes in an article about some of the impacts of superstardom:
“Lorde (real name: Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor) is reflecting on her rise to teenage superstardom in a revealing new interview with the Sunday Times.
“The New Zealand native was just 16 when she found fame with her 2013 studio debut album, Pure Heroine, and her hit single “Royals.”
Lorde said “It’s not normal. My first single was so huge — I thought, ‘This just happens.’
“I remember, over and over, the sensation of feeling like people wanted to drink my youth.
“Some elixir! People were like, ‘Give it to me!’
“I felt, ‘God, this is about you.’
“I was aware of what my youth was doing to people, but I just wanted to be really good [at music].”
Lorde added, “I have grown so much in the years since I became famous.
“A lot of my school friends describe me as a mum, or grandma.
“I’m their old lady friend. But the thing about my job is that I get to play.
“So, in a way, you are immortalized. Friends leave that sandbox; I will always be kind of a child because of what I do.”
Johnson adds, “But that doesn’t mean dealing with her rise to stardom at such a young age wasn’t a challenging process.
“Calling fame ‘a really interesting thing to happen,’ she said she recognizes ‘it gets tricky for people if they find the experience super-validating, if they feel it’s giving them fuel.'”
Lorde: “For me, I was always a little suspicious of it, or sure it would go away.
“I am significantly less famous than I was when I was 16, but that’s exactly how I like it. I’m not getting my validation from it.”
(From article Lorde reflects on teenage stardom and ‘feeling like people wanted to drink my youth’ Megan Johnson, Yahoo News August 22, 2021.)
[Images are from Lorde’s Facebook page.]
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Some related articles of mine on understanding the trait – and thriving with it:
How You Can Thrive More As A Highly Sensitive Person — Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) therapist and author Julie Bjelland, LMFT provides courses and other resources to “Transform stress, anxiety, and overwhelm into a sense of calm.”
On Being a Highly Sensitive Person – a Trait With Strong Gifts and Challenges — includes videos with Elaine Aron and Alanis Morissette, and much more.
Your Childhood And Being A Creative Person
Pushed Into the Spotlight at an Early Age
Nicole Kidman on fame, and actors as highly sensitive people — Kidman said: “Most actors are highly sensitive people, but you have this incredible scrutiny. You have to develop a thick skin, but you can’t have a thick skin in your work.”
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Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the The Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to help creative people thrive.”
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