Lorde: Adults struggle with my orders

Kiwi singer Lorde. Photo / Getty Images

Lorde has revealed adults don't always like to take orders from her, because she's a teenage girl.

Lorde, aka Ella Yelich-O'Connor, said in a recent interview with the Telegraph in London that she has had to get rid of people from her team who won't take direction from her on her own shows.

"It surprises me still that people are surprised that I want to sit at the lighting desk and do my own lighting design for my show. Why wouldn't I want to do that?" she told the British paper.

"This is my show. I don't know ... It's a strange thing. But I'm lucky enough that I work with a really great team, and I've managed to weed out the people who don't want to be led by a 17- or 18-year-old girl. The people who work with me are happy to be working with me, and under me sometimes, which is a scary thing for a lot of adults."

She also said that it's something that can happen to any successful female, not just a famous one.

"They don't even have to be young, they don't have to be in this industry. People find it difficult to watch women being assertive or dominant." she said.

"I know I've encountered it over and over and over, people thinking I'm being difficult for demanding a high standard. You encounter it basically daily when you're the boss ... and you're a girl. Especially when I'm only just at drinking age and everyone's like, 'Why are you telling me what to do?' "

The 18-year-old said she doesn't really go on red carpets and was reluctant to even reveal how she looked when she first started releasing music.

"Even at 14 I had this feminist idea: why should I have to deal with people commenting on what my legs look like? This music is cool. So I didn't put a photo of myself out," she said.

She eventually relented and put herself out there for people who "got" her music.

She also made an exception to her no red carpet rule over the weekend when she appeared to promote the premiere of the The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 in London as the curator of the film's soundtrack.

Lorde, Natalie Dormer, Jennifer Lawrence and Elizabeth Banks. Photo / AP

But now the star has amassed millions of fans, one of which is Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence.

Lorde says Lawrence even had a fan-girl moment when she visited the film set.

"I remember looking over at Jen and her doing one of those quick waves, then turning away and hiding (her face). And I'm like, 'Did she just do that to me? Cos I want to do that to her!' That was pretty cool," she said.

One of the downsides of her success and fame is how it affects those around her, she said, including her boyfriend James Lowe who has been the subject of online trolling.

"Part of what is really difficult about being new-famous, as I call it ... is having to watch the people that you really care about being subjected to the kind of scrutiny that they wouldn't be normally," she said.

However, the one thing that her fame doesn't stop her from doing is trawling the inorganics - when people in New Zealand leave household items on the side of the road for collection from the council.

"Honestly, I've gotten amazing furniture, shoes, hats, jackets," she said.

"I did this three weeks ago! Recognised every single time. So embarrassing!" she said.

- AAP