Olivia Rodrigo has a hilarious response for anyone who tells her she spends too much time writing love songs.
The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star skyrocketed to music fame with her tear-inducing, you-can't-stop-singing-it hit single "drivers license" earlier this year, and followed it up with the deliciously petty breakup track "déjà vu." Rumor has it that both songs are about her relationship with her alleged ex-boyfriend and current co-star Joshua Bassett. However, Olivia has yet to reveal the inspiration behind the music.
One thing she will say, though, is how she's over people criticizing her for writing love-related songs, much like they tend to do with her songwriting idol Taylor Swift. In a new interview with The Guardian, the singer took a swipe at the "sexist" and "BS" criticism, saying, "I'm a teenage girl, I write about stuff that I feel really intensely. And I feel heartbreak and longing really intensely."
She continued, "I think that's authentic and natural. I don't really understand what people want me to write about; do you want me to write a song about income taxes? How am I going to write an emotional song about that?"
Olivia shared that she's excited to explore emotions that "are hard to talk about or aren't really socially acceptable, especially for girls."
Things like, "anger, jealousy, spite, sadness, they're frowned-upon as bitchy and moaning and complaining or whatever," she mused. "But I think they're such valid emotions."
Olivia, who was previously praised by Taylor on social media and even appeared in a video promoting her album Fearless: Taylor's Version, is definitely taking a page from the Grammy winner's book. In 2014, the "Blank Space" singer spoke about critics who shaded the songs she wrote inspired by people she has dated.
"You're going to have people who are gonna say, ‘Oh you know, like she just writes songs about her ex-boyfriends,' and I think, frankly, that's just a very sexist angle to take," she explained to Good Morning America while promoting her album 1989 in 2014. "No one says that about Ed Sheeran. No one says it about Bruno Mars. They're all writing about their exes, their current girlfriends, their love life and no one raises a red flag there."
While the sexist criticism may take a while to die, fortunately, it's not stopping young women artists like Olivia from writing about exactly what moves them.