Lana Del Rey says the scariest thing about her music career taking off is being judged by people.

The singer/songwriter explained that while she has experienced a whirlwind of success over the last 12 months, releasing her work was daunting.

Despite topping the charts in 14 countries, the musician's breakthrough album Born to Die received some harsh reviews from critics with some branding her trademark sound dreary.

"You know what's scary? When you focus on being a writer for ten years and then after that people start listening to the work and they decide that they don't like you and that's kind of off-putting," she told BBC Radio 1 when asked if she had found her rise to fame overwhelming. "Just because when you've put all your work into crafting words and melodies and then people start thinking about you as a person, that's a little off-putting."

Lana also spoke about finding it difficult to stay true to her instincts without coming across as "difficult".

The 26-year-old explained that while she gets offered many exciting projects, she often feels they don't suit her style.

"It just feels like a lot of the time a lot of the options that are available are really not right for me, in terms of things that come up. And I just wonder if that's because I'm really difficult," she said. "I don't like to be ungrateful but sometimes things come up and I think, Yeah, man, I don't want to do that.' But it's so important to follow your gut and your intuition and sometimes it's harder to do that when there are a lot of things that you could do."