Halsey covers Paper Magazine for Pride 2017.

Halsey covers Paper Magazine for Pride 2017.

Halsey features on the cover of a digital-only version of ‘Paper Magazine’ for Pride month, in a photoshoot which features her modelling alongside Caroline Smith - in a stunning shoot that celebrates diversity, beauty, resiliency, and the LGBTQ community.

About the importance of ‘Strangers’, Halsey says: “I was going through something [when I wrote it]. The first lines are "she doesn't kiss me on the mouth anymore/because it's more intimate than she thinks we should get," because I was thinking about this person I was spending time with. We were having sex and going to dinner and whatever, but I asked myself, "When was the last time I kissed them on the mouth? I don't even remember. [Originally] it was me singing myself, and then I was like, "No, this needs to be a duet." I struggled with it for a really long time. I'm not gonna put a straight male on it because he can sing, "She doesn't kiss me, whatever," but it's not gonna be the same and I'm not gonna put a straight female on it, because then that's just exploitive and weird and makes no sense. The fact alone that I was even struggling to find queer women in my field to get on the song…”

And about the response that the song has garnered, she says: "The response we're getting from fans makes my fucking life. The amount of kids who just have just messaged me saying "Thank you for this"... And I get it. I'm a young, bisexual woman and finding that kind of representation in music is really complicated. You don't want to be limited from listening to music that is relatable to you because you're a pop music fan. Pop music can often be really ostracizing. It's just a shame that it's so hard for marginalized or minority people to get the same pop music experience as people who are heterosexual or generally part of the majority. They deserve the same pop music experience.”

Check out the rest of the shoot below…

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