“I’m glad that I haven’t had the success that people had hoped for me until now,” Madison Beer candidly admits in the middle of our interview.
At 26, Beer has already spent half of her life performing for the masses, ever since a viral co-sign from Justin Bieber when she was just 13 put her onto the rest of the world. A decade and two record deals later, Beer’s steady climb to pop stardom took her from YouTube to New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, and it seems she’s only just beginning to hit her stride.
“I mean, people still don’t think I’m successful right now,” Beer says on a Thursday morning call with The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s almost funny when I see these TikToks of people being like, ‘This is the problem with Madison Beer,’ and ‘this is why she’s not bigger,’ and ‘this is why she’s not taken seriously. I’m like, ‘Girl, don’t worry about me. I am really content. I’m really happy.’”
Beer has plenty to be happy with this month — as well as lots of ammo to silence those sorts of takes. Her third studio album Locket, released Jan. 16, earned the singer her first top 10 on the Billboard 200, as well as her first-ever entry on the Hot 100 with single “Bittersweet.”
With more than a decade under her belt, Beer is willing to dig into the things she’s faced in the music industry over the last 13 years with more introspection than others might at her age. At the same time, even with her 40 million followers, Beer can relate to things that many 26-year-old women face. She admits she has an exceedingly complicated relationship with social media, with the added layer of having her entire youth immortalized on the internet. She gets excited about her favorite pop culture of the moment — she’s obsessed with Heated Rivalry just like the rest of us.
“I am the kind of person where I hope to fuck off to a farm in the middle of nowhere at some point in my life,” she says. “I’m not going to be in the public eye forever.”
As Beer continues into this new phase of her career, she takes the time to reflect on her love for Locket and the realities of producing her on music as a woman in the industry.
How are you feeling about Locket? The first week or so after you release an album, I assume you’re consumed in it. Do you feel more clarity now?
I had done a lot of prep leading up to it, so honestly once it came out, it was kind of a relief. It is super intense, probably, honestly, more intense leading up to it. Once it’s out, I feel like things aren’t as crazy. It’s been fun. I love this project, so I was just really excited to get it out there in the world and have people listening to it. It’s been cool to see people posting with the song or listening to the music.
Madison Beer attends the 2026 Grammy Awards.
John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
You co-wrote and co-produced all the tracks on the album. Why was that important to you?
I have always loved to do it without even sometimes realizing. Before I got signed, when I started all this, I was singing just as much as I was in my room making music videos and directing in my own way. I didn’t fully realize that that’s what I was doing at the time. I think that’s also to the credit of working with amazing producers who are really collaborative and want me to have that credit. Sometimes there’s producers that are like, “No, just because you’re saying your opinion or doing X, Y and Z, it doesn’t mean you’re producing.” But my producers were like, no, that’s what producing is.
How does that feel, the trial and error of working with some producers that are not as encouraging? Does it feel like something finally clicks when you work with someone who is willing to help you get to that place?
I stopped working with people a long time ago that didn’t make me feel that way. Working with people who want you to be heard, supported and seen is very, very helpful. Especially being a woman in the industry, I think that there’s a lot of people that don’t want to give credit where it’s due and don’t want to share the title of producer.
There’s a strong misconception that there’s no way that young women pop singers like yourself could be involved creatively. When in reality, most of you are extremely involved in the music you’re making. Have you felt that?
I definitely don’t think it’s just a me problem. Like you said, it’s definitely a universal thing, even outside of the music industry. It’s assumed that [women] can’t be the boss, they can’t be the CEO. As much as we’ve progressed as a society in a lot of ways, I feel like those things also still very much exist.
I have this super nice watch that I wear [and] love that. I was out recently [and] it was a very male dominated room. Someone complimented my watch and asked, “Did your boyfriend get it for you?” I’m like, “No, I bought it for myself. Thank you though.” It’s just funny. In little ways, I feel like things still bleed through that are, in my opinion, underlying misogyny. This dude assumed that I couldn’t afford to buy myself this watch. Maybe I look into things too deeply, but I’m like, well, that’s probably because you assume that a woman can’t be making enough money to do so. I don’t know what it is, but I think there’s a layered thing there that comes up. Even someone like me, who I feel like I am my own boss… I run my life. I don’t report to anyone. I steer my own ship. There are still comments that get made by men.
What about within the music industry specifically?
There are a lot of female producers, but if you look at the producer category at the Grammys, it’s all men. As someone who luckily has the credit of producing my music, I want other women in the industry to [know they] can also request that credit and not be dismissed by the people [they’re] working with as if [they’re] not contributing enough. That’s not how it is. If you’re in a room with songwriters, even if someone just says one word, literally, they usually get just as much credit for writing the song as if someone wrote the entire song by themselves.
And with producing?
Obviously, [producing’s] a much more long-winded process, but when I’m sitting in the studio, next to my producers and [saying] I want this sound. I’m on the keyboard. I’m doing whatever it is. It kind of got to the point where I felt like I was producing the music just as much and like it should be a shared credit that we have. Again, I’m very lucky to work with men that are like, “Fuck yeah, dude, you do deserve the credit.” But it does make me sad that there is just still this thing. I think a lot of women in rooms probably feel like [they] can’t speak up.
Madison Beer for her single, “Yes Baby,” off her latest album, ‘Locket.’
Morgan Maher
You started so young. Finding your own identity is complicated, but doing it with people watching you adds another layer. How do you feel about that nowadays?
Obviously, I cringe at most of my life that’s out there. I look back, and I’m like, “Jesus Christ.” But then also, I was a fucking kid. I try not to be too hard on myself. Whether it’s memes of me that go around… I used to get… I don’t know, I guess it was embarrassment, and just feeling bullied. Obviously, no one wants to feel like people are laughing at them, but when I was younger, I would be mad at myself. [That] would then make me want to go into my shell and [think] I shouldn’t go and stand and talk to people because I’ll say something that then will be deemed cringe and annoying, and people won’t like me.
It was this really fucked up thing [where] I was pushing myself into a shell and wanting to hide because of simply not wanting to be perceived at all. Now that I’m 26, I feel really sad about that because I think I was just trying to also figure out who [I was]. If you had a camera following you from literally 13 onwards, you would look back and be like, “Oh my God.”
Where do you land on it now?
There’s two sides to it, right? Part of me looks back and [wishes] I would’ve just shut my mouth because I’m so embarrassed of the things I did or said or even how I dressed. But then I think, would I tell a 14-year-old girl right now “you’re being embarrassing?” That’s so crazy, and that’s so mean. It’s actually unfathomable to me, so I try to give myself that same grace where I’m like, “Dude, you were a kid. It’s fine.”
But it was weird, dude. It was really weird. I think I’m still changing and growing and doing it amidst… I feel like being judged has been hard, and I can’t say that it hasn’t made me a lot more introverted than I used to be. A lot more scared of trusting people and getting to know people. I try not to let it stop me. I really do love human beings, and I love to meet new people, but it can be really scary when you’re told that you’re a cringey annoying person your entire childhood.
People do seem to have this disconnect when it comes to celebrities, and social media never helps that. If anything, it’s given people direct access to give their opinions. Are you online often? What’s your relationship with social media?
My relationship with social media is really poor. I feel like I’m constantly anxious and feeling like I want to delete all my social media. It’s something I actually struggle with weekly, where I will have a thought: I don’t want to participate in any of that stuff anymore. Then I’ll go on TikTok, and I’ll see someone post a video crying about how much they love me and how excited they are for my tour. OK, obviously this is what I would love to only ever see, positive, nice things like that. The reality is that’s not the truth, and I will always see a video that’s a hate video or some nasty tweet or whatever it is.
[It’s] not fair that I don’t get to be on [social media]. I’m a 26-year-old girl. Most girls my age are on TikTok and able to scroll and [have] it not be an issue. I have to sit and be worried that I’m going to see a fucking mean video about myself. Obviously, it’s not the biggest issue in the world, but it still is something that’s hard, and it’s upsetting.
What you’re saying you think about seems similar to what one of the actors from Heated Rivalry [Hudson Williams] told me in an interview in that first month it started blowing up. That they’d post on social media and delete the apps after…
Don’t even bring [Heated Rivalry] up to me. Oh my God. I’m going to have to talk to you about this after but continue please.
Madison Beer performing on Dick Clark’s 2026 New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.
Christopher Willard/Disney via Getty Images
I imagine it’s really hard to find a balance with something like social media that is always going to have this extreme positive and extreme negative.
It’s so unnatural and not something that we were meant as human beings to do. It feels like we’re always performing. It feels like we all have portfolios that we’re showing one another and it’s just not natural. Oh my God, I also can’t even imagine [what it’s like] for those guys too. I feel like this has been so overnight and crazy for them, that it’s probably even more overwhelming and intense. For me, over the last, what, 15 fucking years, it’s been a building thing. I went from 50,000 followers to 200,000 followers. It was something that grew every year, and I feel like I was able to mentally adjust.
Even to this day, people will say to me, “Is it weird having so many followers?” I don’t think about it at all. I think about it when I’m about to post, and I’m a little scared, but I don’t think about it on a daily basis. But for those guys… I mean that’s also what’s scary about social media. People just all of a sudden become these overnight massive celebrities, and they have to change the way they live their life completely. That’s also a deeper conversation of how a lot of people don’t really have boundaries and don’t really know how to not harass people, but that’s a whole other thing.
You’ve spent a long time building this career for yourself. This is your first top 10 album. This takes a lot of effort and I imagine patience. How do you find it in yourself as an artist to keep going?
It definitely did take patience, but also I would say more so resilience — just not giving up on myself. Looking at things like a blessing. I am glad that I haven’t had the success that people had hoped for me until now. I mean, people still don’t think I’m successful right now. It’s been kind of this blessing because, don’t get me wrong, having a Top 10 album is something I always dreamed of. I’m so honored, and I think it’s really, really cool. But I also have been kind of lucky to never have that, so it’s not defining to me as what’s a good album or not. It’s not defining to me of my self worth. I think that’s really special. There’s a lot of pressure.
Deeming me as not good enough or not successful enough just because I’m not number one is really dangerous and toxic in my opinion for everyone involved. That’s also insinuating to people in all industries that if you are not at the top of your class, and if you are not number one, you’re not good enough, and you’re kind of a failure. That’s so whack. I’m very happy with where I’m at. What if I don’t want to be as big and famous as some of these people? What if that’s a personal choice? Maybe it’s overwhelming for me. I don’t know when we got to this point where it’s all or nothing. I hope to be someone that can advocate for a healthy work-life relationship and not be someone that’s like, you need to give everything you could ever have to your career or you’re not good enough. That’s not my thing. That could be someone else’s, but that just doesn’t align with me personally.
