“We did this session, and I wrote this song called 'Home', and that was the first song that I wrote and recorded and listened back to that I felt like, okay, I feel like I know where I’m going now.” -Jess Glynne British breakout star Jess Glynne found her home inside a studio. Since then,…
THE GIRLPOWER ISSUE
“I was at home in Belgrade watching a match with Monica Seles, who was a big hero in Yugoslavia at the time. During the commercial break they showed an ad for a tennis school. It looked like so much fun. I remembered the telephone number, then wrote it down for my mum, and kept asking her…
“I can never put my happiness or my health behind fame or money. I don’t want that. It's not worth it to me at all.” -Bebe Rexha Bebe Rexha has been in the music industry long enough to learn that it's not as glamorous as it’s chalked up to be, laughing, “I stayed in my…
"Any time you put me in front on a stage, that I can perform for people, I’m fucking happier than a pig in shit. That’s what I love to do. I’m more comfortable on stage than in any other aspect in life. It’s a fucking blast!” -Ivy Levan That's Ivy Levan – cheeky, Southern, drop…
“Mystery, fate...” was what prompted Bianca “Coco” Casady to reunite with sister Sierra “Rosie” Casady in 2003 and form the avant-garde experimental “freak folk” group CocoRosie. They create songs that challenge one’s notion of every musical convention under the sun, just as their ethos challenges every beauty ideal, merging genders, generations and genres. Born into…
“It doesn’t feel like work. I love what I’m doing, and I think that helps me get through it because it’s fun.” -Camren Bicondova Such is the mentality that pushes sixteen-year-old Camren Bicondova through a grueling schedule in a career that’s only just begun. The actress honed her skills on the stage as a professional…
“It’s a connection,” explains Julie Budet, face of the French electro-pop group Yelle. “Mean what you sing, and I think people can see it, even if they don’t understand the lyrics.” The origin of the name Yelle is an acronym of YEL, “You Enjoy Life.” And perhaps that is the key to Yelle’s continued success…
"I think it is important for us to be individuals, and not rely too much on looking for something that someone else has and trying to replicate that. We all are on our own unique path.” Twenty-year-old Flo Morrissey certainly knows a thing or two about paving one’s own way. She is the daughter of…
“Practice your ass off and be better than most, and be remembered as a talented artist who has something to prove or give to the world.” -Dead Sara Emily Armstrong, lead singer of hard rock band Dead Sara, doesn’t mess around. The two lead females, Emily Armstrong and Siouxsie Medley, initially met growing up in…
"I think what happened was electronic music exploded in America. So really, our gigs and fans are what saved us. It was such a beautiful and bizarre feeling to meet fans because when you write for other people, you never have that. Whereas now we have people coming up to us and saying, ‘This song…
“If I ever conform to that, please shoot me down.” PVRIS front-woman Lynn Gvnn isn’t interested in traditional Hollywood beauty standards. “I like to mix masculine and feminine together with everything I do. I don’t want to be too masculine or too feminine; I like to be right in the middle and have both elements…
“Be true to who you are. Be the most you that you can be.” -Betty Who For bright blonde Australian pop star Jessica Anne Newham, a.k.a. Betty Who, standing at 6’1” with a deep affection for gummy bears, it is those distinct traits that give her strength. “Make two lists: one of all the things…
“My parents wanted me to study something academic at university, so I went to Oxford and I studied law. I had such a great time there...the life experience I got. I’m so glad that I just did the normal stuff of seeing a bit of the world before I went to drama school...” Raised near…
"We never intended it to be a love song originally,” says twenty-nine-year-old Grace Chatto of Clean Bandit, referring to their track, “Rather Be,” which went platinum twice and won her a Grammy for Best Dance Recording. “We kind of finished the instrumental track before we started working on the vocals. Then it became focused on…
San Francisco native, and model turned songstress Hannah Cohen left home for New York as a teenager and rooted herself in the city’s music scene, working at the iconic Village Vanguard while becoming a muse to the art world. Growing up with a jazz musician father, music was invariably in her midst. “It was just…
“I don’t want to look like anybody else. I’m inspired by a lot of people, but you’ve got to make it your own, do your own thing.” -Jessie Jo Stark As if Jesse Jo Stark, the twenty-three-year-old music and fashion maven, would ever have to worry about a lack of originality having been raised in…
“I had a hard time,” reveals Jessica Szohr. “I was very lonely when I first moved. It was hard to meet people, everything’s so spread out, I wasn’t in college. I wasn’t old enough to go out.” She credits an emergency visit from her mom and a friend that gave her the strength to stay…
“I was in the studio recording one day and someone said ‘Yo this sounds so magical’ and I was just like yea... really does. Then they go ‘Yo! You’re like a unicorn!’ and then something just clicked in my head, yea I am a freakin’ unicorn. Unicorns are rare, unique, powerful, magical, majestic, beautiful.” The…
“I love playing Bridget on Ray Donovan because there is something special in having a character and being able to watch them evolve and to evolve alongside them and follow their story. It’s something that you don’t get to do in film, and it’s really special.” In watching Kerris evolve from child star, one could…
“There was no business plan or anything. There was no goal. I was just making all these projects and putting them on my website.” Limor Fried’s entrepreneurial seeds were unwittingly sewn when she started building and selling kits for a pre-iPod MP3 player that she engineered while she was studying at MIT. She sold them…