MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED

In the middle of lockdown, a Disney star transformed, seemingly overnight, into the rarest kind of artist: a self-made global pop star adored by Gen Z, boomer music critics- and everyone is between.

- GABRIELLA PAIELLA

Olivia Rodrigo hasn’t made much progress with decorating her new apartment, but she did manage to hang up one prized piece of artwork in her bedroom. Inside a white frame ceremoniously sits a single printed-out tweet. Specifically, a tweet about her by Cardi B that reads: “You doing sooo good for your age. Don’t let no toxic shit get to you and don’t let nobody restrict you from your voice.”

“I honestly bawled. I literally saw it and cried,” Rodrigo says. “I was like, ‘Thanks, Cardi. I’m not going to listen to bullshit.’ ”

On a hotel rooftop in late June, with Beverly Hills sprawled out below us, Rodrigo points to her building in the distance. “I love living alone,” she says. “I also just don’t know how to take care of myself, though. I don’t know what to buy from the grocery store or how to clean up after myself, I realized. It’s been a learning experience.” She’s been navigating many of the typical markers of nascent adulthood during the past few months: moving out on her own, turning 18, graduating from high school. And some of the less typical ones too, like becoming the biggest new pop star in the world.