Olivia Rodrigo Talks About The Challenges Of Growing Up A Disney Star

If you are just getting to know Olivia Rodrigo thanks to her monster hit “Driver’s License”, you may be unaware she is part of the machine that is Disney Channel.

She opened up about what that was like for a new covers story for ELLE. She made her screen debut at 12 years old for the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark and was quickly besties with co-star Madison Hu, but two years later, she was hit with “an identity crisis on steroids” at age 14.

Rodrigo told ELLE she was balancing the question of “Who am I?” with the pressure of being in show business. “Most 14-year-olds aren’t in a room with adults being like, ‘So, what’s your brand?'” Then she scored a big role on “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”, and then came rumors of a love triangle with co-star Joshua Bassett and fellow Disney star Sabrina Carpenter.

Now at 18, she’s relaxing in her skin saying, “I just want to be effortless, I guess,” “Whether it’s in my fashion or my songs or my social media, I want to just be like, ‘Yo, this is me. And I’m sometimes weird as f––k, and I’m sometimes polished and put together.’ I think that’s the antithesis of a brand.”