Despite her meteoric rise, Rapp remains strikingly candid about the friction of fame. Regarding her public persona, she admits: “Not to be the worst, but it is really instinctual.” However, she notes that the spotlight brings its own complications. “People started talking about it and then people started asking for it and then I started overthinking… wait, then I’m scared and now I don’t feel comfortable or how to act like myself.” Ultimately, she acknowledges the struggle of celebrity branding: “You do one thing and it publicly alters the perception of you and then everything is kind of tailored around that one thing.”
While she gained fame on screen, Rapp reveals that “making music is the only thing that makes me solely happy.” Reflecting on her time in The Sex Lives of College Girls, she confesses: “I thought, ‘I don’t really understand why I’m here. I don’t think I’m very good at this.’ But I knew that I was a great singer… that was my best form of communication. I found the thing I love. That’s enough.”
That love for the craft was evident during the creation of Bite Me, which garnered 22 million streams in its debut week. “I remember just feeling so elated with the quality of music that I’d made… Like, fuck, it was exactly what I wanted to make,” Rapp says. Yet, she struggles with the aftermath of sharing her work. “I… historically, will say that I love writing music and detest putting music out. Because once you put it out, it’s really hard to hold on to how you feel about it, even if it’s good.” Summarizing her internal conflict, she notes: “I don’t sit in things well… I fucking love making music but I mentally don’t do well releasing it.”
