Zayn to publish life story post-One Direction

Zayn Malik, who found superstardom as a teen heartthrob with One Direction before a heated falling out, is publishing an autobiography at the age 23.

Publisher Penguin Random House on Tuesday (September 13) announced that Zayn, described as the British singer’s “first autobiography,” would come out worldwide on November 1 and feature his thoughts, drawings and personal photographs.

“I’m going to show you as much as I can so that you can judge me on my own terms, not on what the press or anyone else says,” Zayn, who has gone just by his first name as a solo artist, said in a statement.

Zayn quickly became a celebrity with One Direction, five squeaky-clean boys discovered on the reality television show The X Factor who went on to fill stadiums full of ecstatic girls around the world.

But the carefully crafted image was shattered in 2015 when Zayn left One Direction, leading to open, nasty exchanges on social media with his former bandmates.

Zayn has found success on his own as a solo artist and has taken on a persona that would have been unthinkable with One Direction, with r’n’b-tinged songs full of lust.

Despite his fame, Zayn has been sparing in his public statements since One Direction. He told Beats One radio host Zane Lowe when he released his solo album that he had been craving a more challenging artistic life.

The publisher said Zayn’s book would also explore his “normal childhood” in Bradford, an industrial hub in north England with a large south Asian community.

Zayn, whose father is of Pakistani origin, is one of the most prominent Asians in western pop culture.