Chappell Roan is my hero. At just 26 years old she has experienced a meteoric rise in a matter of months. From playing crowds of 200 to tens of thousands, her trajectory has been an upward 90 degree angle.
Despite her quick popularity, she’s been working diligently at her craft for a decade. She was even signed to a label and then dropped. Her work teaches us lessons that anyone could take with them in their daily life.
I am consistently working towards my dreams.
Chappell was signed to Atlantic Records in 2015 at the age of 17. After a 5 year professional relationship with them, she was dropped in 2020 the same week her boyfriend of 4 years broke up with her. Unable to continue supporting herself as an artist, she moved back home to Missouri (represent!) briefly to work on her music independently. Determined, she moved back to LA and worked odd jobs until she earned a publishing deal with Sony in 2022 and was selected to support Olivia Rodrigo and Fletcher on their respective tours.
Chappell was told, “No.” and she refused to take it lying down. Instead of getting dropped from a major label and doing something else, she believed in the beauty of her big, gay dreams and pursued them wholeheartedly. She never took the disappointment as a reason to give up, she pushed through and came out on top. It took years!
I express myself boldly and unapologetically.
With her breakout performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk series and bright red lipstick smeared on her teeth, Chappell took what could have been an embarrassing moment and made it intentional self expression. Her performances feature costuming that is rooted in the extravagance and larger-than-life energy of drag performances. From green skin to fairy wings, you’ll find her in outfits that visually demonstrate the loud, poppy sound she’s become known for. In an era of pop that has become devoid of much deviation from “standard pop star”, Chappell kicked down the door with wild, red hair and a marked disdain for “indie boys”.
I can hold my boundaries even if it makes someone uncomfortable.
Recently Chappell posted two TikTok videos that sparked a bunch of discourse online about what celebrities and their fans are entitled to. In her videos, she drew a hard boundary and let people know that she wasn’t ok with them being crossed. She said she was entitled to feel like a regular person and to have time off from being Chappell without people asking to take photos, touching her, or being inappropriate with her family members. As a celebrity, we often don’t hear this hard line being drawn for fear that it will turn off the general public to a person. Chappell shows us that we are entitled to holding our boundaries no matter how anyone else feels about it.
I express my sexuality in ways that feel good to me.
Throughout her songs Chappell sings about sex in ways you don’t often hear in pop music. From the line, “Baby, I will cause I really want to,” in Red Wine Supernova to Casual where she talks about someone eating her out in a ballad, she faces it head-on in a way that makes sex less taboo to the listener. She shows a playful side of intimacy that typically isn’t depicted mainstream.
Our heroes should be people who inspire us and push us to expand ourselves in ways that we admire. Through her unapologetic display of believing in her dreams, holding boundaries, and expressing herself through song, dance, and costuming, Chappell is someone I can look up to.
