Ellie Goulding covers the new issue of Seventeen Magazine. I don’t know if it’s Photoshop, her new lips or a little of both but she looks bizarre. Maybe they could have zoomed out a little. Ellie, 29, has some good advice for the magazine’s target market. She wants young women to feel good about themselves. Then she talks about how compassionate she is, which makes me question whether it’s true or not. You don’t often hear people who are really compassionate bragging about it, but she does have a nice message I’ll give her that. Here’s some of what she told Seventeen:

On being an inspiration: “I don’t want girls to get to my age and feel like they’re not pretty enough, not thin enough, or they’re not good enough for something or someone. I’m naturally compassionate—that’s something I really like about myself. I always consider other people before myself, and I think that’s what I try to do with my music. I want to write lyrics that girls can relate to. I’m a girl; I know how hard it is… If girls are anything like me when I was a teenager, then I want them to know everything is going to be okay.”

On going out with One Direction’s Niall Horan: “We’re still friends. We went on a few dates, and it was really fun. He’s a really, really lovely guy. He’s got the biggest sense of humor, he’s very caring, and I see him as a genuine friend in the industry.”

On whether she has dated Ed Sheeran and if “On My Mind” is about him: “We’ve known each other for a few years. I think he’s a really nice guy and a brilliant musician. We’ve bumped into each other and we’ve hung out and stuff, but the thing is if I hang out with someone, it’s instantly like I’m “dating” them. We were never in a relationship. My song is not about him.”

[From Seventeen]

As for the stuff about Niall Horan and Ed Sheeran, you can tell she’s trying to be diplomatic. Most people think that Ed’s song “Don’t” is about Ellie cheating on him with Niall, and he half confirmed that although he claims to be well over it. She’s said that “Don’t” isn’t about her, so maybe Ed was singing about Rita Ora, who knows. It’s not like she’s going to dredge all that up.

There’s more news about Ellie and it’s not good. She broke up with her boyfriend, McFly’s Dougie Poynter, whom she was with for two years. She supposedly told The Sun that she’s quitting music next year, they wrote that “Ellie has revealed exclusively to The Sun she will be QUITTING the music industry next year to get over the heartache,” but I think she’s just taking a break. She’s been active on both Instagram and Twitter, which is a good sign. She retweeted several well-wishes for her break, meaning it’s true. Ellie told The Sun “People think I’m invincible but these past few weeks have been tough. When you’re in the public eye, it seems like you’re able to deal with stuff better than anyone else, which is not remotely true. I’m not in a relationship any more and that’s been hard. Having a break will be a good thing for me and my head.”

Ellie is on tour right now in the UK and she’ll be touring the US up until the end of June. I think she’s probably just burnt out and looking forward to a break. Her career is doing well, I think she should take a few months off and re-evaluate, not plan to drop out entirely.

photos credit: Eric Ray Davidson/Seventeen, FameFlynet, Getty and WENN