“I
sha
red
a lot about my
sel
f, assuming the world(^118) Cosmopolitan October^2
019
I
’
m
n
o t
s u r
e
w
h
o
t o e x
p
e
c
t
.
wou
ld be
kind. That wa
sn’t
the ca
se.”
During my cab ride through Los Ange-
les’s winding side streets, two songs
come on the radio that sound like they
have nothing in common: “Eastside,”
an electro-pop smash about puppy
love, and “Nightmare,” an alt-rock
thrasher about punching mirrors and
tasting blood. They both belong to one
of the biggest pop stars on the planet.
And I’m on my way to her house.
Well, one of her houses. (She has two
places in L.A. because, what the hell,
she’s one of the biggest pop stars on
the planet.) The driveway gate skates
open and here’s Halsey—Oasis tee,
baggy sweats, bare feet—curled over
an ashtray in the backyard. Where the
H a l s e y of G o o g le I ma ge s i s a n e nd le s s
mood board of raver wigs and shaved
heads, the Halsey of right now has her
dark-brown bob pulled back casually
à la Rosie the Riveter, traces of glitter
from her Cosmo cover shoot smudged
around her eyes.
Halsey swears her fans think of her
as a friend from camp, which is kind of
absurd coming from someone with
more than 15 million Instagram fol-
lowers, two Grammy noms, and a hand-
ful of hits that have nabbed top spots
on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. But after
10 minutes of chain-smoking together
(yes, she tweeted last year that she’d
q u it he r de c a de - old h a b it ; a l s o ye s ,
she’s a human being and quitting
things is hard) and comparing our
q u e s t ion a ble t a t t o o s , I ne a rly for ge t
I’m not here to just shoot the shit in a
cool mid-century bachelorette pad
with, um, a girl I know from camp.
“I’m pretty regular,” she shrugs, as
we huddle around a picnic table next
to a swanky ’60s-style pool. A huge
de e r mon it or s u s s i le nt ly f r om t he for -
est. Jersey native that she is, Halsey’s
unfazed. “I’ll sometimes look at other
artists who seem so larger-than-life
and wonder, Am I not supposed to be
here?” This, again, from a 24-year-old
who could retire right now with 10
multiplatinum singles to her name,
who was honored by the Songwriters
Hall of Fame at the same age as
when most people are still working
their first-ever office job. Imposter
syndrome is real, people!
We’re reminded by Payton—
Halsey’s supremely chill BFF from her
dollar-slice NYC days, who she
brought to L.A. in 2016—that there
are piles of takeout containers in the