Olivia Rodrigo opens up about finding global fame while growing up Gen Z

For this month's Vogue Singapore, Olivia Rodrigo stunningly takes the cover and opens up about managing her mental health as the Gen Z pop star of our time.
 
As is often the case, what's kept her grounded is a solid set of parents (her dad being a therapist is likely a big bonus) who supported her dreams of being in the spotlight at an early age.

"In middle school, I was home-schooled and started working on sets, which adds to the unique thing about my upbringing," Rodrigo, 18, tells Vogue. "I spent most of it surrounded by 45-year-old men on a set and not with kids my own age in a school. But I’m lucky to have amazing friends and family who have kept me grounded. My parents take all this craziness in the best way. They always say, 'We are so proud of you and all these achievements are incredible, but we would be equally proud of you if you were in school in your hometown.' They’re the best and that’s a really important attitude to have."

Still, while Rodrigo's family has stood by her – with her grandfather even predicting she'd become a performer at infancy – the rest of her support network wasn't quite as consistent.

"It was surprising to see who was genuinely supportive of me and who wasn’t," she says. "Sometimes when you have a lot of success really quickly, it can scare people and make people feel different. That was an interesting thing to learn. I’m figuring it all out."

But for Rodrigo, the special thing about feeling your way through is exorcising all of that into the creative. It's why break-up songs are kinda the best, and why her debut album Sour's deeply emotional themes are so resonant to so many.

"I’m comfortable being vulnerable with people, and many times people associate vulnerability with weakness," explains Rodrigo. "From a young age, I realized that vulnerability equates to strength, and that’s so true in my songwriting. If I wasn’t so comfortable in my emotions, I wouldn’t have made Sour and it wouldn’t have had that same result."

But how does she manage it all? After all, fellow Gen Zers also feeling the heft of the spotlight in the last year or two have found it to be stifling and rightly so. Athletes like Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles have made waves by being vocal about the value of their mental health and how it's impacted amid a quick rise to global fame.

For Rodrigo, it's about "taking it one step at a time." She adds, "It can be really tough on your mental health, though. I’m grateful for the people who like me for me, and keep me separated from all the noise and tabloids or what people are saying about me on social media. That’s always been a top priority. It’s funny how recognition changes everything and also changes nothing in your life. The problems I was having a year ago are still the problems I’m having now, and things that brought me joy a year ago are still the things that bring me joy now. It’s just another aspect of life that you need to learn how to deal with, but it doesn’t change who you are as a person."

It doesn't help that these women are growing up in the social media-heavy age, which Rodrigo admits is a struggle – but a two-sided one.

"It’s hard to grow up on social media," she tells Vogue. "Even now, I still struggle with it. You look at social media and see the perfect parts of people’s lives and it’s so hard not to compare your life to theirs. It’s even weird for me to see my Instagram page; that’s what people think of me but that doesn’t feel like me. I wish they knew the real me. That’s a strange identity thing to grow up with. Who I am can be represented on this tiny little screen. However, Gen Z and social media have put such an emphasis on positive change, education and inclusivity. There’s good and bad to everything."

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