Photo courtesy of Elora Marketing

Annika Catharina may love a good heartbreak song, but she wanted her rock and roll roots to shine in her latest EP, Up All Night.

AC/DC and Heart were prevalent in her household, and when she found artists such as Evanescence in her teenage years, it was game over. Rock is the genre she gravitates towards as a listener, and she knew that she wanted to incorporate those sounds into more than just a cover song here and there on stage.

“I love songs that make me sit there and reflect,” she said. “After doing an EP where there’s a lot of emotions and heartache with more pop-country vibes, I wanted to dig into ‘What does Annika love to do?’ and I love to listen to and play rock music. There’s something about rock music that gets me all fired up.”

She strives for authenticity in her music, and because she writes with the storytelling aspect of country music in mind, she knew she needed the right people in her corner to bring out her inner rock goddess. With producers The Renaissance, they were able to blend her two loves into a cohesive, edgier body of work.

“Under Covers” was the first release and was the first time she really experimented in the studio with a different sound. The second single, “Better Hands”, leaned more towards the pop-country genre but sprinkled in some rock influence. It brought Catharina into a headspace of wanting to write confident music.

“Just because I was heartbroken doesn’t mean everything is over,” she said. “I’m ready to grow and I’m ready to move on; I’m ready to learn from my mistakes. When I was writing everything that I was writing, I wanted it to breathe confidence.”

“Dancing With The Devil” was her nod to Amy Lee; an intensely slower track meant to showcase the music that first inspired her. “Old Habit” was the perfect follow up and the perfect lead-in to “Won’t Be You Tonight”; the female empowerment summer anthem she had in her arsenal for almost a year, and once she added that to the track listing, she knew she had a batch of songs that fit into a central theme.

Up All Night was never meant to just be about the physicality of being up all night and having fun with friends. It was the ideas, the stories, the songs; the deep thoughts that tumbled around long after the sun set. “Cartwheels” is the ballad that encompasses all those thoughts.

She refers to it as one of the most special songs she’s ever written. She was in a certain headspace as she wrote it, channeling a specific memory that still makes her emotional when she performs it. Production-wise, there are so many little additions that made “Cartwheels” the song they spent the longest creating. Coming in at just under five minutes, she went back and forth on if it would make it to the final track listing.

“When we were recording it, it was such a beautiful experience,” she said. “It’s at the point where, no matter what happens, if people like the ballad or not, that whole experience was really awesome to me and I’m really really glad that I recorded it.”

Listening to Up All Night from top to bottom is a journey through emotions that rise and fall with each track. It is the EP where Annika Catharina continued to practice her craft and challenge herself in a way that led to a more confident version of her.

Graphic created by Hard Pass Creative

When Featurette was gearing up to release their first album a decade ago, the identity of Featurette Girl was formed. With 10 years to ruminate on the logic behind creating a character, Lexie Jay finds herself looking back at someone who experienced too much trauma to understand her own identity.

With the release of CRAVE, it was not yet clear that Jay had trouble being herself. Creating an alter ego of sorts let her dissociate away from herself enough so that she didn’t have to be anyone other than Featurette Girl.

“It’s quite obvious to me now I had a lot of trouble with gender in general,” she said. “I had trouble taking compliments. I had trouble being in my own skin.”

A year after their debut album, they released “Bang” and “Upside Down”. While neither song was her favorite piece of art, it was the continuation of the story of Featurette Girl. Jay and Jon Fedorsen introduced that era to an online publication that not only wanted to share their story, but would continue to do so.

Hi, it’s me.

The more that Jay created music, the more she found a way back to herself. The more she poured her personal tales into lyrics, the more Featurette Girl started to fade away.

Although Marc Koecher was always a part of Featurette’s creative process, once he officially became a member of the band was when the character disappeared. Turning the duo into a trio was a relief for Jay as it was no longer just her ideas and her vision. It was all of them having a voice.

In the song “EXIT” from their latest release, MULTISTATE, as Koecher and Fedorsen play “the angriest shit they’ve ever played” and Jay is about to scream the final bridge, the idea of Featurette girl is gone completely. Despite the heavy personal ties Jay has to the lyrics, she knows it is not just her song. It is her voice on the behalf of something bigger than her.

“It’s not me, it’s us,” she said. “We’re this three-headed monster and it’s not even about me.”

She understands that she is the face of the band. Although that is a completely separate tangent about a need for a new Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, she is just beginning to understand where and how the story began. She is more comfortable with her femininity than she has ever been, and has realized that even the music that wasn’t her favorite was her way of taking a left turn to know she was right.

“The problem I had with ‘girl’ is that I was just trying to get away from that idea,” she said. “Now I’m actively transcending that in a way where I don’t even need her anymore. I’m doing ‘us’ and ‘us’ is other people who are on my wavelength. I can reclaim myself because I wasn’t safe, but now I’m not only safe because I have ammo but also I’m powerful and I did that.”

Five interviews and two guest blogs later, the partnership between Featurette and Black is the New AP Style is much more than an impersonal email interview from 2017. We can agree that the thing about people like us is we can’t be stopped. Not in a way where we want to be stopped, but we don’t know how to stop, so we continue writing songs and articles and spending more than an hour on the phone because we are far beyond Featurette Girl.

Jay is no longer the freshly-graduated-from-opera-school young adult that had no idea how to sing into a microphone. She is no longer confused about what a band can or cannot look like. Between her and Fedorsen and Koecher, they feel unstoppable. Triangles are the strongest shape, after all.

In all the downtime during the pandemic, I found myself exploring spirituality (if that isn’t just the most original thing I could do). True to form, my obsessive tendencies took full hold and I went all in. I birthed a lot of art during that time, reflecting on the isolated experiences I was having, and our album PANIC PILLS was one of those brain children. Each song was an Rx that I took to save myself, or justify my mental state, but our latest album MULTISTATE is a little more visceral. Previous FEATURETTE songs allude to personal traumas, love stories and so on, and these songs are no exception. I’m not trying to rewind back to COVID, but the healing never ends and sometimes that looks messy.

That’s where I’m at right now.

MULTISTATE is spiritual psychosis. It’s the place where you go to discover you’re losing yourself. Your mind is in multiple places at once, trying to find its way back to itself, and all you can do is hang on for dear life.

It isn’t a nice place to be, maybe, but it's glorious at the same time. It’s darker than a lot of the truths I’ve told myself. It’s a lot less pop and contained than PANIC PILLS, because really I’m exploring a different version of myself and my personality. Exploring my limits. It’s almost, dare I say, exploring disordered personality.

Truthfully, I don’t think I’m alone in this place. All three of us in the band feel the same way.

Humanity is going through a spiritual psychosis while discovering itself right now. We’re doing this thing where we’re looking in the mirror with AI, for the first time, and reflecting on ourselves. We’re looking into the scope of what’s out there and we’re like, ‘hey that’s me’. It’s the reflection of all documented and augmented humanity in the past. Is that bad? Are we aligned with the past we’ve committed to virtual memory? How do we move forward with new ideas and discoveries on our own? Do we like what we see in the mirror? It’s this violent whiplash of juxtaposition and contradiction everywhere, and it’s reflected in every part of this EP, hence MULTISTATE.

When I lose it, these are the five places (read: songs) I most often find myself in: “XANAX” is an extension of the ethos of PANIC PILLS; trying so hard not to care but unfortunately I violently care about all these things and always will. (Apathy is a fever dream for me.) “ANIMAL” is about waiting to be chosen; being held back on the sidelines and coming to the realization that maybe you gave power to someone or something that never had the power to choose you at all. “BADLOOK” is about first meeting eyes with that person, and creating a whole world in your head. Your lives together, complete entanglement with one look; whether or not you end up having a relationship with them is inconsequential. “EXIT” is my favourite, a fitting dramatic finale to the EP, and a reckoning with control vs. fate. And “CASTLES”? That’s the peak of the emotional arc. “CASTLES” is for the artists and creatives living in our world of delusion (read: the world as we know it). We make something beautiful out of nothing, we see light in the cracks… ‘we saw castles on the horizon’. There’s always something greater we’re looking toward. Creating worlds when our own won’t suffice. We’re all creating MULTISTATE.

Photo courtesy of Evan Zimmerman

Music holds memories. Listening to certain songs can evoke specific moments in time. Lyrics that were written from a distinct point of view can take on multiple meanings. Songs sung a certain way can be reimagined to fit a new narrative. Jukebox musical & Juliet does just that; it takes songs that defined the pop genre and places them in a modern retelling of the classic Romeo and Juliet.

In a tug-of-war between two writers, & Juliet allows William Shakespeare and wife Anne Hathaway to rewrite the playwright’s most recognized tragedy to give its female character the chance to have a happy ending. Woven into the story are songs exclusively written by Max Martin, the legendary producer behind artists such as Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Celine Dion and many more.

From the teen pop wave to rock-infused pop and everything in between, the influence of Max Martin in the world of music is something to be studied. Prioritizing melodies brought forth hits including “...Baby One More Time”, “Since U Been Gone”, “One More Night” and “Blinding Lights”.

Rebuilding the story of Romeo and Juliet around Martin’s catalog seems like an impossible task, but its Broadway debut in 2022 proves otherwise. Performing to sold out crowds, breaking box office records and touring across America are just a few of the achievements of this unique production. Its latest tour stop at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre for a limited two-week engagement had an electrifying opening night on Wednesday; the multi-generational audience getting whisked away on Juliet’s journey to a second chance on life and love.

The cast ranged from Broadway veterans to national tour debuts, and every single performance ended with the cheers of an awestruck crowd. They took iconic pop anthems and gave them new meanings. Shakespeare showed reluctance towards Hathaway’s rewrites with “I Want It That Way”. Juliet’s closest friend May detailed their struggles as a non-binary person in a binary world with “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman”. The father of Juliet’s love interest, Lance du Bois, apologized to his son, François, for trying to control his life with “Shape of My Heart”. Songs that have been sung the same way for decades changed significantly in a matter of minutes.

When the crowd wasn’t transfixed in a song, they were erupting in laughter. Main performers were delivering lines while background performers were delivering on-stage antics. One-liners so quick that if the audience was still laughing from the last joke it was almost missed. A lesson in how many modern English phrases were coined by Shakespeare. A singular French accent called out in the second act. Mid-scene pauses to question Juliet’s age or nods to iconic boy band dance moves. At every turn, the audience was locked in.

& Juliet flipped the script on the greatest love story ever told and turned tragedy into a Tony Award-nominated musical. Now the only tragic thing would be to miss it.

Tickets for & Juliet’s limited Chicago run can be found here.

I can very vividly remember the moment I wanted to start writing/making music. It was the summer of 2003. I was sitting in my parent’s basement looking up blink-182 guitar tabs on the family computer, because back then there was only one computer per household. I remember thinking, “These songs aren’t that hard to play. I could probably write music like this.” So… yeah, a little naive when it came to songwriting.

Fast forward a few years and the shine of learning other people's songs had started to wear off, so I started writing my own riffs. Not quite “songs” yet, but it was a start. I started my first band when I was 16, and continued playing in too many local bands until I was about 24. All ranging from indie rock to pop punk to southern hardcore.

I took a break from music at that time and tried working “real” jobs. They suck tho. I got back into writing and performing in 2019 with a band called Nicolas Rage. They had just signed with a small American label, which was my first time making music with a budget. That didn’t suck. We released an EP, then COVID hit and the band slowly fizzled out.

I had once again become disenchanted with music, but in a different sense. I didn’t like making music when someone else had majority ownership and a lot of input on the creative. I felt like I was probably done with releasing music and performing live. I kept writing though; I learned how to produce tracks, figured out how to engineer my own sessions and went down the rabbit hole of learning to mix music. I’d hoped I could turn some of those newfound skills into some sort of income. Turns out art is easy to hate when you only think of it monetarily.

Once again I was at a stalemate. I needed a creative outlet but wanted to feel free enough to create without expectations. Without caring if I could monetize it. Without it needing to fit within a certain genre.

This all led to me quarantining in a hotel during COVID. I started writing again, but this time it was purely for fun. Well, that, and to stay sane. My writing style had changed over the years of experimenting with different genres, and I finally had enough of a technical skill set to start putting the ideas together. This gave me the freedom to experiment with writing lyrics; something I had always left to the vocalists of the bands I was in. It’s become a source of self-reflection and a way to analyze how I interpret the world.

Now I’m happy to say I make music because I want to.

Peace out, bitches.

- Mark Wojcicki, Songwriter/Producer

My dad passed away when I was just a kid. I would look at photos of him playing guitar and my mom would tell me stories about what it was like to watch him perform live on stage. I know that I am drawn to music for this reason. As a way to connect with this man I have almost no memory of.

For years I thought if I immersed myself deeply enough in music I might uncover some secrets and understand him better. But as I got older I realized I was doing the equivalent of learning a new language in hopes of having a conversation with someone who was no longer there. No matter how fluent I became it would always be a one-sided conversation.

That realization, while painful, sparked something in me. If music couldn't bring me closer to him then I would need to find another reason to keep playing. So I made friends with other people that spoke the same language.

The moment I knew I wanted to create music was the first time I played music with a group of friends that wasn’t a cover song. It was garbage. We were young. But it didn’t matter. Exploring this shared language had unexpectedly taught us how to connect with someone in the present.

One of my greatest joys has always been the moment where an artist clicks for me. After several attempts of not understanding them, something shifts. A lyric lands differently. A chord progression sweeps you off your feet and you fall in love with their unique way of expressing themselves. Their music, lyrics, videos, album production, art, style, etc. All of it. It begins to feel like magic. There's a connection there too, albeit on a different level. One that transcends distance and time. But it only moves in one direction.

I still struggle with this obsession over the past. Hell. That’s what all my lyrics are about. But those high school jam sessions in my buddy’s basement helped to shape this skill for me. I write to reflect, but I perform to grab hold of the present. If only for a moment. Maybe that’s what he did too.

- Keenan Gregory, Songwriter/Vocalist

Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy

Before its premiere at the Manchester Opera House in England, the hit musical & Juliet was on Joey Fatone’s radar. Two of the musical’s producers, Theresa Steele Page and Tim Headington, mentioned the idea during its creation stage and before they knew it, it was being performed on London’s West End. Fatone’s manager took his family to see the show, and his daughter immediately recognized how perfect Fatone would be for the part of Lance.

& Juliet made its North American debut in Toronto three years later, where it broke box office records and played to standing-room-only audiences before heading to Broadway. It took hardly any convincing from Page and Headington to add Fatone to the cast, and he first took the stage as Lance in 2025.

The Tony-nominated musical flips the script on the greatest love story ever told and asks: what would happen if Juliet didn’t end it all over Romeo? The story comes to life with larger-than-life laughs and songs that shaped the hearts of popular culture.

Juliet’s reimagined story is told through the anthems created by legendary producer Max Martin, who has been an integral part of Fatone’s career. He said Martin has been the same calm and collected person he’s always known, and has always found a similarity in their work ethic. With songs such as “Oops!... I Did It Again”, “Since U Been Gone” and “It’s Gonna Be Me” as the soundtrack to the story, it demonstrates just how impactful Martin’s career has been to the music industry.

“It’s amazing the way he’s able to write these songs and knows what melodically fits, and what it would sound like to make it fun and to make it pleasant to everyone’s ears,” Fatone said. “He’s not the type of person that listens to other things and goes, ‘I need to copy that.’ He just does his own thing.”

The songs are also reimagined, including a touching rendition of Backstreet Boys “Shape of My Heart” performed by Fatone. This rendition has sparked a lot of conversations with audience members after the show, who may have interpreted it one way for the last two decades and have now experienced it in an entirely different way.

“It's very heartwarming,” he said. “It's a really cool take on it. For people that have been afraid to come out and talk to their parents or their family about certain things, this is a good show to see about it. It's one of those ‘it's going to be all right, no matter what the outcome is’ in the sense of whether parents are going to love you or not.”

Witnessing an audience’s real-time emotions is the most rewarding aspect for him. Just last week, watching a mother and daughter in the front row sing and dance like no one else was in the room was a sweet moment for him.

Fatone’s introduction to Broadway was in 2002 as the lead role of Mark Cohen in Rent. That role taught him everything that he still implements on stage today: breath control, pacing and making sure every audience gets to see his best performance. He credits performers such as Michael James Scott, who performed the role of the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin musical nearly 4,000 times over the span of 12 years, as a testament to the commitment performers bring to the stage every night.

“You want to give 110%, but you're doing eight shows a week,” he said. “It's a grind. People don't realize what this grind is for some artists out there that try to do this or want to do this. It’s doing eight shows a week; the same exact show every day. It does not really change, unless you're doing improv. It's like Groundhog Day.”

The show can be a challenge but in the best way. Another exciting challenge for this role is that it was Fatone’s first time playing the role of a father. It was not so much a farewell to his youth but an introduction to his everyday life. Some of his castmates are around the same age as his own children, with some of them showcasing their talents on Broadway for the first time.

“It is truly amazing to see these kids, these peers, shine and grow,” he said. “I love that part of it.”

After doing a few runs of & Juliet on Broadway, Fatone has since been part of the touring ensemble, including an upcoming run at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. It is a storyline, and a character, that he is enjoying immensely.

Tickets for & Juliet’s upcoming performances, including Chicago, can be found here.

Cassidy Margolis had been a frequent visitor to Los Angeles to work on her music as margø when she decided to apply for an O-1 Visa. She knew she had people living there that would be in her corner - management, producers, co-writers - but she was surprised to so quickly find a community that lifted her up in ways she never thought possible.

Since moving to Los Angeles, making music and its accompanying visuals have been a group effort. McKenzie Connell and Victoria Towns have been instrumental in set designs and prop creation. From intricate puppets and papier-mâché masks to (respectfully and in no way being traumatized by Toy Story) dismantling Barbie dolls, there has been no challenge too small for them.

“[They have] been the most amazing creative partners to work with,” Margolis said. “Any crazy idea I bring to them they make happen. The three of us have been a little powerhouse of building all of the crazy props you see in the music videos.”

Co-directing the music videos and visualizers alongside Margolis is Hannah Avison and Austin Dickerson, who also serves as videographer. Their ideas and suggestions have brought so much value and importance, Margolis said, and they execute her visions better than she could have ever imagined. There is no idea too crazy for them, and they will show up for her every single time.

Together, alongside artists and friends Matthew Brandon, Adam Snavely, Cody Carwile, Katie Cox, Caleb Towns, Gwen Towns, Amelia Watson, Tanya Negin, Max Zappellini, Joey Vice, Bex Merry, Cami Petyn, Morganne Yambrovich and Bo Baskoro, their creativity is being lent to a full-length release for this fall.

“I think that’s what’s making this album so special,” she said. “It’s very community-based. I have such a wonderful group of people surrounding me who believe in the art and really bring my vision to life.”

The perfect example of their dedication is seen in the music video for “hometown heroes”. On the hottest day of the year, inside a room with absolutely zero air flow, the choreography created by Coco Williams added an extra level of chaos Margolis hoped for. When viewing the playback, she was equally amazed and entertained at how much effort everyone put into it.

Her latest set of visualizers is for the single “dirty laundry”, which finally gave Margolis the chance to bring a dollhouse concept to life. She wanted the visuals to have a sense of lightheartedness, with hues of pastel pink and a brightness to drive home that polished feel. Beneath the brightness are lyrics that touch on the stereotype of distorting reality to appear perfect, and keeping to a script in order to appease the other person.

“There was this feeling of having to be perfect in every way in this relationship,” she said. “I had to watch my tongue constantly so I didn’t upset this person. I had to be so polished so that I didn’t do something wrong and have them take love away. I think that was something that really translated well to this idea of living in this perfect dollhouse where you have to be this perfectly polished thing at all times, and you’re kept in these little boxes and this person decides when they’re happy enough to take you out and give you attention and affection.”

With her album release anticipated this fall, she has been introducing a set of songs unlike her previous material. While her first album was written at a time where she felt untethered, this new set of songs are coming from a much happier mindset. Instead of focusing on the emotions happening in the moment or writing about a specific person, she is looking at those moments in retrospect and how her feelings were ignored.

“Looking back at the experiences that I had while I was writing my last album, I realized I didn’t deserve any of that,” she said. “I put up with so much and accepted so little, and I allowed myself to be so hurt by someone who just didn’t deserve me. A lot of this album is really unpacking that feeling of giving so much of myself to be so hurt and receive so little back and that retroactive anger for myself.”

There is a misconception that art is made better in times of sadness. Over the last year, Cassidy Margolis has found herself in such a safe and happy space that making music has never been more enjoyable. She has found something special in the city of Los Angeles; a community of people making really cool art and uplifting one another. Creativity is unlimited, and she is thankful for all the creativity that is explored for margø.

Griffin Museum of Science and Industry © 2026 MARVEL

In issue 15 of Marvel Comic’s Amazing Fantasy, Peter Parker gains remarkable abilities from a radioactive spider and must deal with the need of becoming a friendly, neighborhood superhero while balancing the pressures of being an everyday teenager. For with great power, there must also come great responsibility.

Since its publication in 1962, Spider-Man would go on to become one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes. Comic books, television shows, feature films, video games, theme park rides… and a traveling exhibition currently at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Beyond Amazing - The Exhibition features original artwork by its legendary creators, rare comic books and behind-the-scenes looks at how the Spider-Verse has transformed in the last six decades. Artifacts include a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, rare notes and corrections from Stan Lee, concept sketches, unique merchandise and movie props.

Stepping into the exhibition feels as though one is stepping into the pages of a comic book. Bright, colorful pages come to life as guests walk through the timeline of the character. Interactive components provide in-depth storylines. Tricks of the light catch spider webs cascading down a wall. Two dimensional villains lurk around corners. The placement of each and every artifact is meticulously thought out.

For Griffin Museum of Science and Industry Head Curator Dr. Voula Saridakis, Spider-Man was part of her Saturday morning cartoon lineup. Welcoming the traveling exhibition curated by others into the museum’s space was important work that brought forth an exciting challenge.

“With so many artifacts, media and story beats, the challenge was to create a clear, engaging narrative that helps visitors move through the exhibition in a way that feels cohesive, meaningful and engaging,” she said.

Exhibiting the full arc of the character was rewarding in more ways than one. For starters, Dr. Saridakis personally got to educate herself on how expansive the Spider-Verse has become. She said it was genuinely fun to learn about the hundreds of new Spider-Man characters and see how each one adds something different to the overall story. She was also surprised to learn how collaborative the Spider-Verse has always been. While the character may be primarily associated with Stan Lee, the exhibition really highlights how many creatives - from early comic illustrators to today’s filmmakers and animators - shaped Spider-Man.

“At a certain point, you can see it register with guests that they’re not just looking at a single character, but at something that’s been evolving and staying relevant for decades,” she said. “Seeing original comic art alongside film costumes and life-size character figures creates this layered experience where people connect with Spider-Man in their own way, and then you start to see those connections shared across generations, which is very special.”

Since its opening in May 2025, more than 350,000 guests have already visited Marvel’s Spider-Man: Beyond Amazing - The Exhibition. Superfans have dove into the evolution, movie lovers have seen up-close looks of the iconic suits and guests of all ages have tried their hand at drawing one of the most popular superheroes.

“One of the most rewarding aspects was creating an experience that truly feels multigenerational,” Dr. Saridakis said. “Spider-Man dates back to the early 1960s, and yet he continues to capture the imagination of audiences today. Bringing together materials that resonate with visitors who grew up with the original comics together with those who know him through recent films and the Spider-Verse created an exhibition where different generations could connect through a single superhero.”

Tickets for Spider-Man: Beyond Amazing - The Exhibition are available here.

Photo courtesy of Karly Watson

It was exactly 365 days since Mandy McMillan last spoke to a love interest when she received a text message.

“Are you alive?” it read.

She forced herself to laugh about it as she was absolutely certain this person had been viewing the content she was posting online. She felt this energy come over her - less anger, more humor. She grabbed her guitar, sat down on the living room floor and wrote “LTMFG” in under 20 minutes.

A cheeky acronym for "Let the Motherfucker Go", the single is an unabashed self-love anthem for those ready to break free from toxic relationships, rebuild self-confidence and embrace life. She didn’t want the song to represent bitterness or feminine rage. Instead, she wanted a way to continue to laugh about the situation.

She chose a stream-of-consciousness approach to the writing of the song, followed by an attempt to work with multiple producers to get it to its final stage. Each time, the vibe was off. Just as she was wondering if she could find a way to produce the song herself, an ad popped up for a 12-week production course at Berklee College of Music.

The production course was impactful in more ways than one. It gave her the confidence to create music beyond the songwriting portion. It also taught her how unstoppable she could be.

“All of that really made me learn how much passion and fire and determination I have for myself,” she said. “It made me really stand up for myself and what I really want to do. Nothing can get in my way.”

Despite the song being on hold for a few years, its message is timeless. It felt genuine from start to finish; no filters added or lyrics edited. She felt that even though time had passed from that exact moment, the message still landed. As she began to share the song with her audience, she found out that they were translating it into their own lives as well. Whether it was a romantic or professional relationship, everybody seemed to have their own version of a motherfucker in their lives that needed to be let go.

She wanted the message to be conveyed in a unique way for the music video, and with the assistance of director Karly Watson, they brought a rage room to the great outdoors. Releasing pent up frustration via smashing fragile objects was the perfect metaphor for “LTMFG”, with friends alongside her as they create their own self-love rage room in the middle of a field.

Choosing self-love is a theme she has found in her life many times, and its constant reminder inspired more than just a musical project. Every Single Girl’s Guide to Self-Love is an idea that formed nearly a decade ago and was inspired by personal struggles that forced McMillan to lean into self-love and choose herself every day in order to overcome those obstacles. The book chronicles those obstacles and how an almost mandatory reflection of herself gave way to a path that she hopes will inspire others.

“I genuinely believe it’s all to do with my essence and creativity,” she said. “My music, my art; it’s all through the lens of self-love.”