Addison Rae Is Pop’s Next ‘It Girl.’ Here’s Why

For those who recognized Addison Rae from her reign as TikTok’s dancing queen or her stint as a beauty mogul, it might have come as a shock when she emerged last year as a pinup with windswept hair and a signature pout in a Sean Price Williams-directed grayscale visual for “Diet Pepsi.”

Teeming with reckless abandon, Rae’s breathy lilt on the mid-tempo pop lullaby channeled a Lana Del Rey-esque portrait of Americana as she waxed poetic about the nostalgia of “young lust.” 

Rae, now 24, who once ruled TikTok with viral dances after emerging on the platform in 2019, took a break from her 88 million followers to grow up. As the Louisiana native (born Addison Rae Easterling) pursued acting with the Netflix movie He’s All That and the slasher film Thanksgiving, she also teamed up with stylist and Interview Magazine editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg as well as creative consultant, choreographer and close friend Lexee Smith to help crystallize her aesthetic. 

The transition, which some criticized as “inauthentic,” was really just a step forward into what Rae craved all along — pop stardom.

As many other young women can attest, the jump from 18, when she first found acclaim on TikTok, to now, at age 24, was formative. However, Rae’s journey out of social media fame came with preconceived notions about her, for instance, that she was newly interested in music and art.

But, as she told ELLE Magazine, “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.” In turn, she did what anyone would — she used the spotlight she earned to help her dream bigger. Now, finally, Rae is primed to be the next “princess of pop.”

Of course, for those who had been attuned to Rae’s transition, a pop career had been brewing for some time. In 2021, she dropped the glossy, “Stars Are Blind”-esque number “Obsessed” and revealed she had, in fact, been writing her own music.

Two years later, after snippets of her unreleased music had leaked online, Rae shared her nearly-scrapped AR EP, which debuted at No. 19 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and notably featured a collaboration with Charli xcx called “2 Die 4” The release of the EP not only quelled cynics — with the Charli duet providing clout — but proved Rae’s potential to become a bona fide pop star. 

The PEOPLE App is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more!

Over the past few years, there’s been not only a return to Y2K culture (low-rise jeans, Von Dutch trucker caps and even flip phones) but also to a peak-2014 Tumblr girl aesthetic — heavily saturated filters, vintage-inspired images of Del Rey, indie sleaze and sadcore.

Rae herself even spearheaded the trend in a now-deleted Instagram featuring her leaning into the aesthetic in a fur coat, red lipstick and a hazy filter. Its resurfacing also further signaled the death of the “clean girl aesthetic” — a rejection of sanitization, wholesomeness and an embrace of imperfection and sexuality.

When Charli’s critically acclaimed 2024 album Brat took over the zeitgeist last year, it seemed to reinforce this shift as well. As the defining cultural moment of not only the summer but of 2024 in general, Brat and its hedonistic aesthetic — authentic, messy and vulnerable with cigarettes, baby tees and neon green — helped set the stage for Rae’s confident and carefree pop evolution.

Rae was not only featured on the remix for Brat track “Von Dutch” as well as A.G. Cook’s “Lucifer” with Charli, but she became a facet of the cultural moment as she made her live performance debut of “Diet Pepsi” at Madison Square Garden during Charli and Troye Sivan’s co-headlining Sweat tour. It’s ultimately helped Rae emerge as the newest “it girl” — as not only a singer, but a style icon and performer. She’s all dolled up in this high-and-low-brow amalgamation of glamour, charm, grunge, aspiration and attainability.

There’s also Rae’s talent to consider. It’s clear that she has meticulously studied the pop pioneers before her. “Diet Pepsi” harnesses the playfulness of Britney Spears’ “Oops!… I Did It Again” and its sensual sighs echo Del Rey’s 2012 Born to Die era. “Headphones On” recalls the whispery haze of Madonna’s 1992 LP Erotica and 1998 record Ray of Light. “Aquamarine” fuses Eurodance and the experimental edge of Björk. Her latest single, “Fame Is a Gun,” seems to channel the electro-pop of Robyn and Peaches. There are notes of Janet Jackson, George Michael and Prince in the mix, too. But it would be reductive to say Rae’s music is culled from influences — instead, she’s synthesized it all into her own distinct sound.

While Rae has yet to earn a No.1 on the Billboard charts, the outlook for her forthcoming album Addison is more than promising. Already, “Diet Pepsi” and “Aquamarine” have debuted on the Hot 100 charts and, as of June 2025, she has more than 12.3 million monthly Spotify listeners.

Sure, Rae’s LP is yet to arrive. But between her strategic relaunch into the public eye, the creative direction that’s encompassed this entire era and its music, which pays homage to many of pop’s greats, she’s at the center of the pop culture zeitgeist. And with the hype surrounding her debut album, it seems she’s primed to wear the tiara as pop’s reigning “it girl” for the foreseeable future.

Addison is out Friday, June 6.