Troye Sivan Says He Was Forced Into 'Hyper-Sexualized Environments' At 17
- By
- On Top Magazine Staff
- | April 26, 2018
Australian singer Troye Sivan says in an Attitude cover story that he turned to “hyper-sexualized environments” to meet people like himself at 17.
The 22-year-old Sivan came out gay in a 2013 YouTube video.
As he prepares to release his eagerly-anticipated follow-up album to Blue Neighbourhood, Sivan, who appears in the upcoming LGBT drama Boy Erased, said that as a teen growing up in Perth he felt isolated.
“All my friends were hooking-up with random people at parties, and I just felt so left behind, because I didn't know gay people, I didn't know where to meet gay people,” Sivan said.
“I didn't really want to venture out by myself and so I just did stuff that a 17-year-old boy shouldn't really have to do.”
Sivan said that he got a fake ID and installed Grindr, a dating app for gay and bisexual men, on his phone.
“[Y]ou sort of are forced a little bit into these hyper-sexualized environments, and even though that's awesome when you're 17 … I didn't know what else to do.”
“[B]ecause I was so small, I was so scared to meet up with people because I was like, 'I'm going to get killed. I'm going to get murdered by someone.'”
“[It made me feel] kind of a little bit creeped out, but at the same time I really don't have any regrets. Maybe I wasn't ever truly scared, just really uncomfortable,” Sivan added.