Zara Larsson is a 21-year-old chart smashing popstar who, in her own words, has always dreamed of becoming a huge artist. (Hardly surprising, as she did win the Swedish equivalent of Britain’s Got Talent at the age of 10.) But despite her already extraordinary career, before her period each month, the singer faces such horrendous anxiety that she can ‘barely get out of her bed’. Following her set at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, the musician opened up to Grazia about her PMDS (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) - a severe form of premenstrual syndrome, which causes emotional and physical symptoms the week or two before starting your period.
‘[The anxiety] comes on and off - especially before my period,’ she told us backstage at Middlesbrough’s Stewart Park. ‘It’s really severe. I can barely get out of my bed. And it feels really, really bad - and I know that I’m not alone in that. It doesn’t really matter how much success or how much money or everything you want in life; that will still stick around, you know.’
It’s predicted 5-10% of women have the disorder, and Zara hopes that her honesty will help draw awareness to the condition. ‘It’s something that you kind of have to learn to do with,’ she adds. ‘I’m a very open person. I like to just say how I feel and I know that helps me a lot to just be honest about it [but] I think it also helps the people who are following me to see that “Oh, this is normal, like I’m not weird”.’
The singer is one of many popstars - including Bebe Rexha, Justin Bieber and Little Mix - who are taking the courageous step of publicly talking about their mental health. Speaking about the added pressures in her industry, the 21-year-old said that some artists may feel added stress, due having a career buoyed by streaming statistics, record and ticket sales. ‘I’ve always wanted to be a big artist, I’ve always wanted to have that - what is it? - someone to validate me, I guess.
‘But really it’s not up to anyone else to do that, you know? Because I have to find my value within myself and I think that a lot of artists struggle with that because it also comes down to how popular you are, what the stats are, how many records you’re selling and sometimes you’re blinded by that, so you think that your value is in that - and of course it isn’t - but I think that can be extra hard.’
‘I mean I’m not even close to Justin Bieber famous or having people follow me around,’ Zara modestly adds. ‘I have a private life. But can you imagine not having a private life? I can’t. It’s probably really hard. And I think everyone should talk to someone.’
Though the singer has 5.7million - yes, million! - followers on Instagram, the musician also admits that she still struggles with the very moden problem of feeling validated on social media. ‘Everything is relative,’ she says. ‘It’s like “Oh, I only go a thousand comments” or “Oh, I only got like five hundred thousand likes” it’s like that’s a lot of people! But still, in my world, you get blind to that. I think it’s really damaging in the long run how we view ourselves and how we see ourselves, especially seeking [validation] from strangers - like, why? It’s strange. I think everyone goes through it.’