Zayn Malik’s Book ‘Zayn’: 10 Impressions Of Z And His Departure From One Direction
Zayn Malik’s book Zayn, at least at first glance, is a revelation, not of things that happened, or of things people did, but rather a look into Zayn’s heart. Malik didn’t spill about anybody’s dirty laundry, or try to make other people look bad. He just opened up about himself.
One Direction, Simon Cowell, and Perrie Edwards can all breathe a sigh of relief. No one got slammed. No one was slandered. Malik just laid his own heart on the line. The way Malik handled those potential situations is really nice.
1. Zayn Is A Really Expressive Writer
Zayn Malik’s book, Zayn, is actually quite amazing from a literary perspective. For someone who never seems to interview well, Malik is incredible at expressing himself in print. In part, it could be because he opens up and lets the real Zayn out, but it is also because Malik is just as good a writer as he is a musician and graphic artist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAEJYBaUyl8
2. Zayn Malik Is An Artist
One Direction should have asked Zayn to design their album covers. The layout of Zayn is amazing. Malik is completely obsessive about visual arts and creativity in general. Zayn has to be working on something creative all the time.
Zayn Malik is compulsively creative and positively driven. Malik literally can’t help himself. It just happens and if Zayn can’t create, he just can’t deal with his life emotionally. Malik has been like that since he was a child. No artistic projects to be involved in meant Z would act out. Zayn explained in this passage, also quoted by the Daily Beast.
“Labeling a kid ADHD, or whatever, can help identify solutions for some, but it can have a negative effect on others. With hindsight, I think my hyperactive-type personality stemmed from the fact that I couldn’t find anything creative to get passionate about.”
Zayn Malik is quite talented. The book Zayn is gorgeous and heavily illustrated. If Malik weren’t a musician, he could have been a writer or a graphic designer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBJw9NRkZKM
3. Zayn Malik Is A Gentleman
Gentlemen do not kiss and tell, or a least that is a platitude that grandparents still use, but apparently it is one that Zayn also holds dear. There are not any sexually explicit discussions about Gigi or Perrie. There aren’t any angry rants about anything either girl did either.
Gigi Hadid isn’t mentioned at all. Malik doesn’t exploit their relationship to sell books, or make himself seem cooler. Zayn is about Z, not about Gigi or Perrie.
Malik left One Direction and Perrie Edwards at about the same time. Zayn spends a lot of book space trying to explain his departure from the band, and virtually none discussing his break up with Perrie Edwards. The Daily Beast noted Malik only mentioned Perrie three times, and only in passing.
Zayn Malik’s departure from One Direction and his break up with Perrie seem forever linked in Malik’s mind. The Inquisitr quotes one mention of Perrie Edwards, but it is only mentioned here in connection with his departure from 1D.
“It was March 2015. I had been in a bad place for a while and I didn’t see myself getting out of it unless I made a change. My relationship with my fiancee, Perrie, was breaking down. To make matters worse, there were so many crazy stories flying around in the newspapers about us, and it felt like such an invasion of privacy, it made me just want to disappear for a while.”
Though Zayn Malik had previously denied breaking up with Perrie by text, no one seems to believe him in the press, so why waste pages explaining further. Besides, it seems so much classier not to. Zayn took the high road on this one.
4. Zayn Malik Believes Women Are Very Wise
Zayn Malik appreciates women so much that he seems to believe they are almost supernaturally smart. Malik believes that women are naturally smarter and he says he trusts them more than men.
After One Direction, Zayn Malik put himself in the hands of a management company run entirely by women. He took great comfort in their guidance and trusted them with his career.
“I always say, if you want a genuinely peaceful and intelligent solution to a problem, get a woman to solve it.”
5. Zayn Malik Is So Vulnerable
One Direction took Zayn away from his home in Bradford, and into a whole new world. Zayn oozes vulnerability throughout the book. He seems innocent, open, and kind of naive as he describes the culture shock he experienced as a teenage heartthrob. In one passage quoted in the Daily Beast, he admits that he was terrified of flying for the first time.
“I was really nervous about it, and it didn’t help when the boys thought it would be hilarious to convince me that the plane would do a loop-the-loop after we took off. I nearly s**t myself. Obviously they were just having a laugh.”
One Direction was an amazing experience for Zayn Malik. He’s very clear about that, but something else comes through a lot more plainly. Zayn’s decision to leave 1D was instinctual and explaining it is hard for him.
6. Zayn Malik Can Be Very Self-Recriminating
Zayn’s One Direction departure was one topic Malik did address over and over as if he was unable to explain despite his new found written word eloquence, exactly why he left. One thing is clear, though. Those first interviews where he was trying to explain his needs as an artist, were vastly misinterpreted by the press.
Zayn Malik obviously feels bad, perhaps even guilty about leaving One Direction. It feels like Zayn is still not comfortable with his decision, but it simply had to be. He has been blamed and at times verbally lynched in the press for his departure from the successful boy band, but in the end, he just had to leave. It makes no logical sense to him either.
7. Zayn Malik Followed His Heart Out Of One Direction
Zayn Malik knows quite well how blessed he was to live that One Direction dream. It was amazing, but Malik says he followed his heart not his head.
“I knew I had to go. I remember finishing a show in Hong Kong and just feeling it in my gut…my head said stay but my heart said go home.”
One Direction was wonderful but it was impacting Zayn Malik in a detrimental way. Malik still finds his decision somewhat inexplicable, but he keeps trying and eventually conveys that decision as more of a feeling than a thought. Zayn developed an eating disorder. He was in a bad place emotionally. He simply couldn’t handle it anymore.
Leaving One Direction sounds like some sort of survival instinct for Malik and instinctual impulses are hard for anyone to explain.
8. Zayn Malik Got Sick On The Road
One Direction fans never got the straight story on Malik’s departure until now, and it is very complex to understand every aspect of Malik’s decision to leave. However, one thing is blatantly clear.
Zayn Malik was sick. He wasn’t eating, he felt “lost” and kind of confused even after he left. Zayn says he was in a bad place. Zayn had developed an eating disorder. The way he describes it sounds a lot like exhaustion and chronic stress. It is hard to be sure exactly what his diagnosis could have been, but he was emaciated, exhausted, and he couldn’t eat.
9. Zayn Malik Is Perpetually Misdiagnosed And Misunderstood
Just like in Malik’s childhood, when he was diagnosed with ADHD when he really just had a powerful inborn need to create, people got the wrong idea about Zayn in 1D. Zayn was again misdiagnosed, over and over in the press.
In One Direction, the press labeled Zayn the mysterious one. Malik hated that title, but the truth is, Zayn has always been a mystery to the press.
One Direction’s Zayn Malik has been misdiagnosed, misrepresented, and completely misunderstood by a press that wanted to sensationalize him as the bad boy, or the mysterious one, or even the rude one when Z is not that way at all. It is no wonder he felt so misunderstood.
Zayn Malik has been the fall guy for the One Direction break up, which is really just a hiatus anyway. Zayn wore out first perhaps, but they were all pretty much exhausted. Zayn quitting allowed the rest of them to take a much needed and well-deserved break. No one should be angry with him about that.
Niall Horan had acid reflux that can be caused by chronic stress. Louis Tomlinson has reportedly hardly done anything since they went on break.
One Direction’s Harry Styles and Liam Payne seem OK but who knows. They might have all collapsed eventually if Zayn hadn’t quit. They had been on some seriously overbooked tours every year for five years. Somebody had to call for a break eventually.
Zayn Malik has been habitually accused of slamming this and bashing that when he really didn’t say anything negative. Malik has been the subject of tabloid gossip, and negative articles based on fishy unnamed sources. Malik has even received hate mail, for various reasons even when he was part of One Direction.
RELATED REPORTS FROM THE INQUISITR
Book Wars! Zayn Malik, Perrie Edwards Address Their Split In New Memoirs
Zayn Malik Confirms Suspicions: Z’s Book Titled ‘Zayn’ Reveals Inspiration For ‘Mind Of Mine’
Zayn Malik On ‘Mind Of Mine’: Excerpts From Z’s New Book Reveal Zayn’s Creative Process
10. Zayn Malik Is A Real Person
While it might seem obvious that Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, and Niall Horan are human beings, it seems like a lot of people forget that part. In all the excitement fans feel for the One Direction guys, do they forget their humanity? Zayn brings all that back into perspective.
Zayn Malik’s book Zayn speaks about a real human being with powerful passions, painful insecurities, and other human emotions. Zayn presents himself as someone people can identify with and hopefully understand a bit better.
One Direction’s Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson are all actual people. They aren’t perfect and they aren’t robots with batteries that never need recharging either, and neither is Malik.
Zayn Malik humbly reminds us in Zayn, that he is a mortal, with fears, insecurities, dreams, hopes, and aspirations. Malik is compulsive about his artistic nature. He got really sick on the road, and he feels deeply conflicted that he had to quit. Zayn cares about how he is perceived enough to write a book and explain his feelings.
Zayn Malik and his reasons for leaving One Direction will hopefully be better understood, since writing a book to explain himself.
[Featured Image by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]
