It was over three years ago that an unknown singer-songwriter from New Zealand going by the name of Lorde conquered the pop world with a breakout debut single called “Royals,” and before anyone even knew how to pronounce her name correctly, she’d become a household name. She was only 16 years old at the time, and late last night, minutes before her 20th birthday, Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor took to Facebook to wax-poetic about her teenage years and what they meant, and to give us an update on the status of the long-awaited followup to her debut album, Pure Heroine.

Writing Pure Heroine was my way of enshrining our teenage glory, putting it up in lights forever so that part of me never dies, and this record – well, this one is about what comes next.

Read the rest of her lengthy post below.