Charli XCX Says 'There's No Cookie-Cutter Pop Star'

Charli XCX sticks her tongue out for the camera in this feature from Paper magazine’s Summer Music Issue, now on newsstands.

Here’s what the 22-year-old singer had to share with the mag:

On being successful: “I think there’s this twenty-first-century idea of what sells records, especially within females, but there’s no cookie-cutter pop star. Sometimes I think record labels still try and cram artists into that, but the artists who are successful are the ones that tell them to f-ck off.”

On misogyny: “There is definitely still a strain of it. It’s sh-t sometimes that there are literally no women working at record labels, and female artists tend to get more questions about their validity as creatives, whereas male artists in the same position don’t. It’s so frustrating.”

On saying the right thing: “I don’t think I’m the type of person who always says the right thing. In fact, I always say the wrong thing at the wrong time.”

For more from Charli XCX, visit PaperMag.com.