Olivia Rodrigo reflects on turning 20 in her new Vogue cover story
When Olivia Rodrigo became the latest actress/singer latest in a long line of Disney stars to launch a solo music career, she quickly joined the ranks of other superstars like Miley Cyrus, Zendaya, Demi Lovato, Vanessa Hudgens, and Selena Gomez. When she released "Drivers License" in January 2021, which was purported, but never confirmed to be about former flame and former “High School Musical: The Musical: The Show” costar Joshua Bassett, it quickly went viral and has since amassed over 388 million views on YouTube.
With such a quick rise to fame, which included other hits like “Good 4 U,” “Happier,” and “Deja Vu,” along with high profile performances at Glastonbury and SNL, she now reflects upon those early successes and what that means for her career going forward as she turns 20.
Speaking with Vogue for their new August 2023 cover story, which dropped Thursday, she says of her early days in the business, “You don’t realize how young you are when you’re young, being on sets, surrounded by 40-year-old guys, talking about the traffic and the weather, learning to make small talk like an adult.”
“I remember being in meetings when I was 13, and they were asking me what I wanted my brand to be, and I was just like, ‘I don’t even know what I want to wear tomorrow.’”
Now, as we learn in the interview, she’s moved to Manhattan in her own little apartment and sees herself living out her “Sex And The City” days as a cross between Carrie and Charlotte, except she loves going to the vinyl record store and buying old Bruce Springsteen live recordings from Toronto.
“I wake up and make my little matcha and I make bacon for myself, and then I sit at the piano and try to write something, even if it’s s**t,” she says of her daily routine and her songwriting practice.
She also says that the trap young stars find themselves in is often due to the young party lifestyle. “I would hang out with my friends every single night and have a sleepover, or I’d cling to a boyfriend, anything to not process what was actually happening in my life,” she says, adding that she would prefer to be songwriting now. “I’m not going on 17, going through my first heartbreak, crying, with words just pouring out of me,” she says.
As for clinging to boyfriends and going through heartbreak, she does touch on the subject briefly but prefers to frame it as a part of growing up in the industry.
“I was under the impression,” she says, “that the younger you are, the more successful you’ll be in the music industry. I think I believed in these false ideas for a little while. The most painful moment of my life turned into my most successful.”
Perhaps she’s referencing Bassett here and her mega-hit “Drivers License,” but when asked if she’s currently single or taken, she also takes a roundabout approach.
“I don’t know!” she laughs. “I don’t kiss and tell.
“It’s an interesting thing to think about,” she offers. “I understand it. I could sit here and be like, ‘I don’t get why people do that,’ but I do it so often.”
Now that she’s 20 and living her own adult life, her thoughts about the girl that wrote about heartbreak at 17 are ones of compassion and grace. “That girl feels like a different person. I look back at her, and I think, ‘Aw. She did well.’ I think she’d be really happy with who she is.”
But despite her stratospheric rise to fame after her album “Sour,” the song topics seem a bit dated to her now. “Somehow, all of that totally pales in comparison to turning 20,” she says. “The rest of it feels minuscule compared to that.”
She also takes the time to offer her unfiltered opinions about the US Supreme Court’s decision to revoke Roe v Wade in 2022, calling it, “actually insane—I think it’s sickening.” She adds that many women and girls will be “forced to give birth if they get pregnant,” she says. “It is so scary. It’s such a terrifying reality.”
Her support and respect for a woman’s right to choose has translated to her own dreams of being a mother going forward in her life. “I’m so excited to experience motherhood one of these days. I think about it all the time.”
You can read her entire cover story on Vogue.
