Olivia Rodrigo on #FreeBritney, pandemic fame, and the one fan who left her starstruck

In a new GQ profile, pop star Olivia Rodrigo – fresh off the release of her hit album Sour and massive hit song "Drivers License" – talks what it's like growing up in front of the world and being put through the star-making machine.

Most importantly for her, that means figuring out her own tastes and interests (lots of '90s love), which is a new thing for Rodrigo, who spent much of her youth on Disney with the shows Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

She tells the magazine, "I just remember being 14 years old and being like, 'I literally have no idea who I am. I don't know what my personal style is. I don't know what I like. I don't know who my true friends are. How am I expected to cultivate an image?' That was always hard for me. Even now, I have no idea. I try, but my image today is not going to be the image that I'll probably like tomorrow. And I think that's also the fun part of being an artist, that you get to create images that evolve over time. But as a young girl, that was really daunting to me. I felt like if it wasn't able to be seen by other people and it wasn't consumable over the internet or over other mediums, then it wasn't worthwhile. That's increasingly more prevalent in people: the constant desire to always need to share so much of yourself. You're not a cool person if people on the internet don't think you're a cool person. That was a mindset that I had to get out of, but I'm definitely out of that now."

Probably in part because she has figured out her style – and her fans, including Ed Sheeran, have been eating up. "Ed Sheeran the other day was like, 'I love Olivia Rodrigo.'," the singer says. "And like, 'I love that she writes her own songs, like rocks out.' And I was like, 'Oh, my God—that's so cool.' I think he's one of the best songwriters ever.

When asked how it felt becoming famous during a global pandemic, Rodrigo says, "I think it was actually awesome, because there was this lack of pressure. If there was a concert and I could see that “Drivers License” was being sung by thousands of people, I feel like I would've gotten in my head more than I did."

Rodrigo's fame also comes at the time of the #FreeBritney movement, when the conversation around how the media and the music industry treats female stars has never been louder.

"The Britney stuff was just horrific, and I've been following it very closely," Rodrigo says. "I think it's just so awful. I think, as an industry, people are getting better at not taking advantage of and manipulating and bullying young women. But it's still so apparent, and I witness that too. Not near at the level that Britney has, obviously. I think that's an important paradigm that I hope that we'll be able to break in the coming generations. I've definitely seen corporate dollars be prioritized over people's mental health. That's always been something that I've been really conscious of in my own career, and I'm really lucky I'm surrounded by people who are conscious of that and conscious of my mental health being the most important thing. You can't make art and have a good career if you're not there."

At the start of her career – which, of course, is still so fresh – Rodrigo reminisces with GQ about how much of a people-pleaser she was until recently, when she discovered that sticking to your guns – in terms of style and music – is what sets an artist apart. But as for where that need to please came from?

"Being a girl," she says. "I think women are praised for always being nice and kind and helpful. And that's something that I've had to sort of outgrow as I grew up as a young woman in the world — that notion of being sweet is the end-all. That sort of mindset got me into a lot of situations where I just didn't stick up for myself. I didn't advocate for myself or treat myself well. There's a lot more adjectives to me than sweet. I feel like when you work on a set or you make music or whatever, every little action that you do is magnified. So I think that's another reason why I was always a people pleaser. I was scared if I was like, 'No, I actually don't like the way that you're treating me,' people would be like, 'Oh, she's a diva.' People are so quick to call successful women divas or like, 'Oh, they were a bitch to me.' And so anytime anyone says something like 'Oh, I met someone's daughter and she was awful.' I'm like, 'Is she just like a cool woman that's really successful?' I always take stuff with a grain of salt."

Amen. As a part of this new generation of female pop stars, Rodrigo has proved she's got the critical eye she needs to move ahead – and write the kind of break-up songs that click with everyone, no matter what age.

A key way she pulls it off? By remembering this one special distinction, that might be useful for most of us (fame or no fame): “Something that I learned very early on is the importance of separating person versus persona. When people who don't know me are criticizing me, they're criticizing my persona, not my person."

Listen to Olivia, kids.

BEFORE YOU GO: Britney Spears officially files petition to remove dad as conservator

[video_embed id='2248967']BEFORE YOU GO: Britney Spears officially files petition to remove dad as conservator[/video_embed]