Featured In Who What Wear
Grace was interviewed by "Who What Wear", a digital fashion, beauty, and lifestyle publication. The interview was done in early December, and the photo shoot was done in the second half of November 2024, possibly around the time Grace was in L.A. for the Grammy Museum event. The photoshoot took place at the iconic One Wilshire building in Los Angeles ("the most highly connected Internet point in the western U.S." Wikipedia). Grace had been featured in Who What Wear once before, in May 2019.
The interviewer was Eliza Huber, a fashion editor who specializes in trend reporting, brand discovery, and celebrity style.
Grace talked about some of the same themes she had touched upon in her recent interviews. She talked about how, for years, she wrote and lived to please others, how she is regaining herself with the new album, and about the change of label.
Breaking the habit of living to please others
Songwriting was, first and foremost, a coping mechanism for Grace—a way of speaking her truth in moments when she didn't have a voice. "I've always had a problem with vulnerability. So, it was really my one outlet. … Over the years, I started getting scared of the music, I feel like it started becoming a vessel—a mirror [image] of everything I was experiencing." Rather than writing for herself and allowing music to be the therapeutic asset it started as she let other people's opinions dictate what she put out. "I started viewing it as the public instead of my solitude."
Entering adulthood, VanderWaal finally felt ready to unlearn a practice that had held her back socially, professionally, and personally for most of her career: saying exactly what people want to hear. Rather than figuring out who she was and what she wanted for her life and career in her formative years, she took on a role of satisfying the desires of others, whether that meant writing music that primarily appealed to the public and record executives as opposed to herself or simply communicating with the sole purpose of having others leave conversations enamored. "When you're in a situation like that, everything was networking," she says. "So while I was developing my social skills, that's how I was learning to talk to people. How can I walk away from this person with them loving me as much as possible and wanting to invest in me as a brand at 12?" She's quick to explain that no one necessarily taught her to be this way or created some sort of character mold for her to fill. "It's not like an Old Hollywood Judy Garland story, It was positive reinforcement." Because of this, when she was upset or exhausted, she'd put up a front, masking her pain for the sake of others and never showing anyone how she felt. "I had to unlearn that. … When I got into young adulthood, I was really socially awkward, and I couldn't make friends or connect with anybody because I only viewed talking to people as an exchange [or way of] getting ahead," she says. "It stopped people from meeting the real me, and that is, in return, extremely lonely," VanderWaal recalls a time when she encountered a fan and didn't put on a performance for them like they were expecting. "I was just normal. And I could see her face fall and be like, 'I was not expecting you to be like this.'" Rather than further pushing her into the caricature she'd previously drawn up for herself, the interaction was a wake-up call. "I was tanking relationships, but then I actually ended up making real friendships from that. Now, friendships are built off of me when I'm off and chill and authentic."
The new album
"It's a very secretive, personal side of someone that's jarring to see. That's normally something that you might not even see in a partner for a year or two—someone baring their soul." At the same time, the album's narrative is relatable, even if details having to do with her childhood in the spotlight might not be. "It was just a kid—a little girl—with a lot of weight on her shoulders and being told 'You're so strong' instead of 'Let us take that.'"
"With this album, it's the first time since I was a little girl that I got back to that beating heart. This is a vulnerable release for me." The album started with the writing of ‘What's Left of Me,’ a raw and complex ballad about the aftermath of a broken relationship. "I had no direction. I had no concept. I just felt like I was writing from a real place." In the lyrics, VanderWaal tackles not knowing what parts of her, physically and emotionally, were left untouched—undamaged—by the person she loved. In facing that pain head-on, she says the floodgates opened, allowing her to access deeper trauma from various aspects of her life. Much of this introspection went into the other songs on the album. "I felt like I was slowly collecting this gunk that was crusting over and crusting over. Crafting each song was a way of scraping off that gunk one layer at a time. When I finally did it, I was like, 'Oh, that's not too bad. It actually sounds pretty good. So I kind of was just like, 'How deep can I go?'"
She had an unlikely source of influence throughout the writing process: "I was heavily inspired by that scene in Midsommar where they're all crying and breathing together. I just want to vomit and cry and shake and have it all be a part of everything."
"I have an easy favorite song on the album that I've cried countless tears for," she says. According to her, the track was always going to be the most important song on the album—even before she began writing it—due to the subject matter. It's one she's given a lot of thought to. "It was really, really important for me to touch on my experience with purity culture, being a child star, and being a girl. It's such a nuanced topic for me, and I wanted to bring in all of those layers you feel as a woman of almost resenting your womanhood and it being the epitome of pain and all these awful things toward you but also wanting to explore it freely and safely." All of this was laced with questions about how society has shaped her beliefs on the subject. "What even is my sexuality without the world? Am I contributing to something painful for myself by simply being a sexual woman?" she questions. After much reflection, VanderWaal says she's confident she did the topic justice: "I really love the song."
The label shift
"Sometimes, you have to lose everything to achieve that something". She had already mostly finished the album before signing with Pulse, which she says perfectly primed her to go in and pitch herself to different labels. "There was a real lack of fear in that because these were strangers at the time," she explains. "Your validation about it doesn't matter as much to me. If you hate it, that doesn't mean much because I don't even know you." With the switch, she was finally free to ask for what she wanted and write the kind of music she'd always had inside her but was afraid to let out for fear that someone wouldn't like it. "I think that heavily influenced the place that it got to eventually," When I ask her if she felt equipped to handle the business of pitching herself to new labels and closing the book on her time with Columbia, she says yes. "Very equipped. I felt like I was eager to now, as an adult, apply what I've learned all these years in a way that's true to me, It's kind of like leaving the teacher and taking on the world for myself."
The clothes
Outfit 1: Sportmax blazer, top, shorts, and belt; Stylist's own tights and jewelry; Jimmy Choo Love 85 Logo Leather Pumps
Outfit 2: Givenchy coat; Norma Kamali Oversized Boyfriend Shirt Bodysuit, Tory Burch glasses; Stylist's own tie and socks; Bulgari Serpenti Viper Necklace, and Divas' Dream Earrings; Giuseppe Zanotti Oraine Pumps
Outfit 3: Tory Burch jacket, shirt, shorts, and boots; Bulgari Divas' Dream Earrings
Outfit 4: Norma Kamali Oversized Boyfriend Shirt Bodysuit, Tory Burch glasses; Stylist's own tie and socks; Divas' Dream Earrings. Giuseppe Zanotti Oraine Pumps, Saint Laurent bracelets)
Outfit 5: (from the interview:) A floor-length leather trench coat by Khaite [Rothen] styled with elbow-length gloves [Clyde Classic Gloves] as well as a shirt-and-tie look that played fast and loose with real-life office dress codes. By that, I mean pants were optional. [+Cedar Pump, Stylist's own earring]. In the leather jacket, I totally felt like a dominatrix, I couldn't stop snapping my leather gloves at everyone."
Khaite Coat, and s; ,
Outfit 6: The Andamane Ottavia Hourglass Blazer, Rochas playsuit; Jimmy Choo Ixia 95MM Metallic Leather Sandals, Bulgari Fiorever Earrings, Clyde Racing Gloves,
Crew
Photography: Erica Snyder, a freelance photographer and director currently based in New York. I specialize in photography for musicians.
Stylist: SK Tang, a fashion stylist from Hong Kong.
Creative director: Sarah Chariot, creative director and designer based in los angeles
Links
Who What Wear interview
Photos and video foprm the photoshoot
Video from the photoshoot