Mckenna Grace is taking over Hollywood with starring roles on The Handmaid’s Tale and the Lifetime movie The Bad Seed Returns — and now she’s crossing over into music by unleashing “Post Party Trauma.”
The 16-year-old actress says the track is about her “social anxiety at parties,” which stems from a nagging feeling that she’s “the biggest loser in the room.”
“It’s very straight forward,” she tells ABC Audio, adding the song reflects what many pandemic-weary people feel. “Trapped inside of a house … A lot of people have developed social anxiety from not being in these social settings for so long.”
Grace, who describes herself as an “outwardly positive and happy person,” admits she was nervous to release the single because it’s so vulnerable. But, she isn’t the only singer releasing emotionally charged songs.
Other singers part of the so-called “sad girl” pop movement are Olivia Rodrigo, Willow, GAYLE, Tate McRae and Billie Eilish. Grace has a theory why this type of emotional music is exploding in popularity.
“Everybody’s anxieties … have surfaced over the past two years,” she said, noting a growing number of people are using the internet to “talk about mental health” publicly.
“I find that the conversation has opened up a lot over the past couple of years and people have been a lot more open and honest,” the Gifted actress said. “Being in such [an] open and accepting community definitely makes it easier to put that kind of [music] out there, but it doesn’t make it easy by any means!”
Why? “Putting these emotions out there [is] very scary!” she said, before hinting another song like “Post Party Drama” is on the way.
“Writing my music is like therapy to me,” Grace continued. “Hopefully my songs can be therapy for someone else.”
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