The 24-year-old star rose to fame in 2019, quickly becoming one of the most followed people on the video-sharing platform. But Rae has transitioned into music and acting in recent years, and has no regrets about the route she's taken.
"All of that led me to where I am right now," the Diet Pepsi hitmaker told ELLE.
"What's funny to me is that people assume that these passions are new. First of all, no one ever even knew who I was before I was a freshman in college, so it's like, 'How would you even know what my interests were before?'. I grew up dancing; I've always loved to sing.
"I acknowledge how lucky I am that I was on TikTok, and people cared enough to watch my videos and follow me, and therefore gave me the freedom to be able to explore my deep desires that I've always had.
"It's like, 'What am I going to do? Not chase my dreams because I feel like I haven't done enough school to get here? Or I haven't had enough experience?' It's like, 'No, the door opened for me, and I'm going to go through and explore it'."
Rae says she can understand why people have been critical of her music, but maintains it accurately reflects her real self.
Set to release her debut album later in 2025, Rae explained: "I totally get why people may feel like this isn't who I really am. But it's like, 'No, maybe I didn't want to show you who I really was because I was afraid of confronting that, and I was afraid of what people would say about it'."
She no longer worries about her critics, insisting she feels proud of her music success.
"As long as every day I feel like I'm putting out things I'm proud of and inspiring people, then I have no complaints ... I'm succeeding at what I want to do. I've definitely gotten much further than I expected to."
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