Lorde starstruck? Singer ‘freaks out’ over Hilary Duff, Lena Dunham

Don’t let Lorde’s self-aware nonchalance fool you -- she’s still a teenager and will squeal excitedly when presented with one of her idols, specifically “Lizzie McGuire� star Hilary Duff and “Girls� wunderkind Lena Dunham.

The young Grammy winner’s public display of freak-out comes in the May issue of Teen Vogue, in which the cover girl’s feature interview opens with her fascination with Duff attending one of her shows last February. From grungy goth queen to bubble-gum commercialism? It just comes with the popular territory, we suppose.

“Hilary Duff? Are you freaking serious? Hilary Duff was there last night? This is what dreams are made of! Was she vibing it? Was she bobbing her head?� the 17-year-old singer-songwriter asked the reporter interviewing her.

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Duff, 26, who starred in the fashionable Disney Channel show “Lizzie McGuire,� is apparently “enamored with Ella’s lioness mane,� reporter Andrew Bevan wrote, adding that Lorde hasn’t cut it in seven years.

“This is the most insane thing that’s ever happened to me,� said Lorde, whose real name is Ella Yelich-O’Connor. “That’s my childhood right there. Hilary Duff is a fan -- that freaks me out!�

Yes, this coming from the same girl whose Teen Vogue coverline reads, “Prescribed ideals of how girls should look are over,� and whose song of the year is a deadpan indictment of pop-culture consumption.

Aside from her total meltdown over the former the child star, Lorde said she’s also reached out to a few of her contemporaries and was pleasantly surprised by them recognizing her too. (OK, she did win two Grammy Awards this year, and her song “Royals� has surely been stuck in our heads more times than we care to admit.)

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“I finally watched ‘Girls’ a couple of days ago and I loved it,� she said. “I tweeted Lena Dunham and she was like, ‘You’re the dream audience.’ I really appreciated that. I was like, ‘Ahh!’�

And therein lies the beauty of social media, where she spends a good deal of time, again, just like any other member of her generation.

“I like Twitter because it’s a good direct link to people. You just reach out to someone you like and say, ‘Follow me please, and then we can talk,’� she said. “I really like Instagram as well. It’s a good one, very simple. I’m also on Facebook and Tumblr.�

The articulate New Zealand teen has also been hobnobbing with country darling Taylor Swift and gushed about her in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.

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The pair had a rocky start, but now Lorde counts Swift as one of the few young artists with “real teenage voices.� “There are very few of us,� she told the mag. “The other teenagers sing other people’s songs, which is fine, but it’s not an authentic teenage experience.�

It’s unclear who she was talking about, but speculation includes another Disney alum, Selena Gomez, and perhaps her on-and-off boyfriend Justin Bieber.

The outspoken Lorde added that the fame that came with “Royals� and her Grammy wins has helped her get out of her comfort zone.

“I spent so much time in my room before. I’m out in the world a lot more now,� she told Teen Vogue. “I have real-life interactions frequently. It’s amazing.�

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