Zayn Malik is one of four “rebels” chosen to cover Elle UK’s September issue, along with Kristen Stewart, Amandla Stenberg and Hari Nef. You can see the other covers here. Elle created both a black and white and a color cover (below) for him. It’s a nice cover, albeit not too exciting. His eyes though *swoons*. Zayn is still promoting his Mind of Mine album and his solo career. In the bit that Elle released of the interview, he discusses music, Mom and marriage… no, not really. He speaks lovingly of Gigi Hadid but doesn’t mention marriage, I just needed the alliteration. After his flippant Glamour interview, it’s nice to see a little more depth to Zayn.

On his solo career and love of music: ‘My entire life has changed in the last year. I’m still taking it all in. I’ve found so much out about myself. Mostly how in love with music I still was. The album is a build up of six years and never being able to express what I wanted to say. I had something to get off my chest.’

On his relationship with his mum and sisters: ‘I enjoyed the womanly influence. I have a lot of respect for women because of them. They are so strong, powerful and do everything themselves…’

On his decision to leave One Direction: ‘At that time in my life I felt I had done everything I could do there and I just needed to change it up. It didn’t feel brave. I just don’t have it in me to feel fully secure in anything I do. I always strive towards something better. It’s why I think sometimes I come across the wrong way, a bit distant. I’m just stressed out trying to control how I’m perceived. I think about things a lot.’

On his relationship with model Gigi Hadid: ‘She’s super intelligent, I think that’s why it works so well. And we do the same type of job so we get that with each other.’

On the negatives of social media: ‘As much as social networking is a big thing now, there’s something to be said about having something real, if I had a choice I would take the camera off everyone’s iPhone and make sure we didn’t have Twitter or Facebook. It affects art form. There’s something to be said about living in the moment. I try to keep my phone for calls.’

[From Elle]

Is anyone else a little bummed it wasn’t actually an alien that told him to leave 1D? As for Gigi’s being smart, I have no idea if that’s true or not. What I am curious about is why he thinks that makes them work – because they are intellectually matched? Or is is a yin/yang thing? Since Zayn struggles with anxiety, I am glad he has a strong support unit of his mom, sisters and Gigi – especially when he does actually go out on tour.

Many of my friends have the same opinion as Zayn about social media but they still don’t put their phones down. I don’t check my phone in public unless I am alone. However, something recently came up with a contract that forced me to check my phone periodically while I was having lunch out with my family. My only other choice would have been not to go. From now on, if I don’t want people in my party using their phones when we are together, I’ll ask them not to. But I’m going to stop worrying about what the people at the other table are doing unless they interrupt my meal. Since Zayn has active Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram accounts, he may want to rethink his stance on eliminating social media.

Here is a Behind-The-Scenes of Zayn’s photoshoot:

Photo credit: Elle/Nabil Elderkin, WENN and Fame/Flynet Photos