Lorde's Birth Certificate Surfaces -- Just How Old She Really Is?

It's hard to think that Lorde is just 17 years old, considering that her songs (which she wrote, by the way) are not your typical teenage pop fare and she speaks like she's older than she really is.

Case in point: that interview with Rookie magazine where she mentions The Virgin Suicides to Tavi Gevinson.

"[The Virgin Suicides] really resonated with me as a teenager," she said. " I mean, I am still a teenager."

Theorists over Twitter could not help but speculate that Lorde's real age is anything but a that of a teenager, with one user predicting that she might be actually 40 years old and not 17 as she claims to be.

For Huffington Post, this comes to mind the case of Riley Weston, the writer behind the '90s hit TV series Felicity, who then claimed that she was 18 years old but is actually 32 years old. This expose caused her to lose the deal with Disney and her contract with Warner Bros., the production company of the series, was not renewed.

To silence all the rumors regarding Lorde's age, The Hairpin dug deeper and acquired a copy of her birth certificate from New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs. And it's confirmed: Ella Maria Lani Yellich O'Connor, or Lorde, was born Nov. 7, 1996. Seventeen years old, she is.

The Hairpin ends their report with a conclusion that "Lorde is not old, she is just more talented and successful than you were at 16 or perhaps than you ever will be."

Huffington Post agrees with "Come on people, she's just an old soul."

But despite all the age rumours, Lorde is cool with it. In fact, in an interview with Vanity Fair during the pre-Grammy party, she jokes about her age with a deadpan statement:

"Hi, I'm Ella, and I'm actually 45."