What 11 Olivia Rodrigo Fans Want You to Know About Being a Girl Right Now

Ai-jen Poo, founder of the National Domestic Workers Alliance

At Olivia Rodrigo’s inaugural Daisy Chain Fields music festival, girlhood was the whole point. The Grammy winner founded the all-female charity fest with uplifting women in mind: “When I’m standing onstage at a concert, the honor is not lost on me to look out and see so many young people—young girls, in particular—who I feel so connected to and who feel connected to my music,” Olivia told Cosmopolitan last year, long before the festival’s formal inception. “We share this beautiful bond, even if we’ve never met face-to-face. I know I’ve grown up listening to so many artists, mentors, friends, and people in my life who’ve guided me along the way, so to think that I could be a tiny part of someone else’s journey is so beyond me and such an honor.”

Now, Olivia has carried on that legacy, joining forces with powerhouses who paved the way in music, reproductive rights, gender equality, and more to advance and advocate for women and girls. And Daisy Chain’s stacked lineup didn’t hurt, either—artists like Doechii, Bikini Kill, Eli, and Chappell Roan gathered to perform and support nonprofit organizations from Planned Parenthood to the Black Mamas Matter Alliance and Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, raising a whopping $20 million (and counting!) for the cause.

Cosmopolitan hit the grounds at Daisy Chain Fields, where 11 fans told us what it means to be a girl. Their responses are incredibly insightful, endearing, and, at times, a little chaotic, but prove there’s no single way to experience girlhood.

Perhaps O-Rod puts it best: Like girls, “Daisies are wild and beautiful. As a chain, they are strong and unbreakable.”

Why did it matter to you that this festival is raising money for reproductive-rights organizations?

This is a time when a lot of us feel really overwhelmed, and we don’t know what to do. Today is such an antidote to that. Every single person who’s walking around here experiencing these booths is getting a spark, a seed they’re going to take with them, and they’re going to continue to do great things in the world based on some idea, some story, some inspiration, something that touched them today. There are a thousand of those touch points happening every minute, every second, and it’s going to set off this virtuous daisy chain of activism and energy.

What’s the one Olivia Rodrigo album you can’t live without?

My favorite Olivia album is the one that just came out, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, and I love the song “the cure.” It’s on repeat on my playlist.

Jenn Stowe, Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance

Do you have a message you’d like to leave for Olivia?

My message to her would be that she is incredible. Keep doing what you’re doing. You are a badass; You are inspiring girls all over the world. You’re inspiring people who are looking for somewhere to go and something to do, and that’s incredible and invaluable. Keep doing what you’re doing, and bring more people along with you!

If you could only listen to one Olivia Rodrigo album for the rest of your life, what would it be?

The one album that I would live with is the latest one, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. It’s amazing from top to bottom. The happy songs in the beginning, “purple,” the sad songs. That’s the one that I’d really want to hear, and that’s my favorite one.

What’s the one Olivia Rodrigo lyric you can’t live without?

My favorite lyric would be “I wish, I wish, I wish you love me less” from “less.” It’s such a sad girl song, but I love my sad girls and I love that song so much.

Angela Doyinsola Aina, co-founder and executive director of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance

Do you have a message you’d like to leave for Olivia?

Thank you for being brave and being an artist that other people can be influenced by to put on such an important festival like Daisy Chain Fields. So many wonderful organizations, including our own, are working every day to fight for our rights to health care, especially for maternal and reproductive health care for everyone.

What’s the one Olivia Rodrigo album, song, or lyric you can’t live without?

The one Olivia song I really love is the one that goes, “Baby boy, honeybee.” It’s so cute!

Gracie and Evy

Why did it matter to you that this festival is raising money for reproductive-rights organizations?

Evy: I feel like it means more girls in science, and that’s really exciting.

Gracie: I’m really appreciative to have a festival like this because I’ve been to a lot of festivals, and I haven’t seen any where they’ve actually gone and taken the time to help donate the money and design it themselves. So, it’s a great thing.

What makes a great girls’ festival?

Evy: Bikini Kill!

Gracie: An all-girls lineup, definitely. I want to see more of that because there’s never enough girls on the lineups.

What’s something another girl here did for you today?

Gracie: We’ve gotten gifted lots of trinkets and fun bee stuff, since we’re dressed like bees. Everybody’s been really nice about our outfits.

Evy: The energy is just really nice, and it’s good. Everybody feels safe, too.

Jena

Why did it matter to you that this festival is raising money for reproductive rights organizations?

It’s super important and probably part of the reason why we were so excited to come. It’s great to know that our money is going toward such great causes, especially reproductive health and women’s health care.

What makes a great girls’ festival?

This is so for the girls. It’s all sorts of stuff we’re into right now, right? Cool patches, embroidery, things with statements on them, pins, junk journaling. It seemed so on the nose for what I’m into. I’m a millennial, so I’m probably in the middle of the age group that’s here, and there’s still a lot of stuff that’s my vibe right now.

What Olivia Rodrigo lyric did you need most in your life?

“Perfect all-American bitch.” That lyric itself, and that whole song, I was like, “I relate.”

Lana and Thainha

Why did it matter to you that this festival is raising money for reproductive rights organizations?

Thainha: It means everything for an artist as young as Olivia to use her platform to give back to the world. And women’s rights now, more than ever, deserve to be protected. We deserve the right to exist, human rights, and especially the future for our girls and children. It’s just amazing.

Lana: It makes it so easy to support your favorite artist if you know they’re giving back. It means the world that art and music can bring people together for a cause that means something to me personally. My reproductive health is being protected by an artist I admire.

What makes a great girls’ festival?

Thainha: The ratio matters. Being surrounded by other women and allies, it already feels like a safer space, a space where we can feel more comfortable being ourselves and letting loose. And it’s nothing like the real world, where you always have to be guarded.

What’s something another girl here did for you today?

Lana: My best friends have taken care of me. They kept me hydrated with sunscreen, food, and positive vibes, and just being my friend. I love you guys.

Thainha: Even strangers we’ve met have been super kind. Everyone’s giving out freebies and complimenting each other’s outfits, and it’s just a really wholesome and uplifting time.

Sana, Caroline, and Aish

What’s the one Olivia Rodrigo album you can’t live without?

Sana: you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, because I’ve just been able to listen to this nonstop, and the words are just perfect. Everything is perfect about it. I’m screaming in the car; it doesn’t matter if it’s 6 a.m. or 6 p.m.

Caroline: GUTS, because it’s the best album to scream in the car. It’s so cathartic and literally like therapy. “Vampire” is amazing.

Aish: you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. It’s a banger. I commute a lot from San Jose to San Francisco, and it literally plays nonstop in the car.

Do you have a message you’d like to leave for Olivia?

Sana: Dude, I know you’re hurt, but that makes amazing music. So, I love it. Whatever you’re doing, if it has to be being hurt, love it.

Caroline: As long as it makes you happy, keep doing what you’re doing because you make a lot of people happy.

Aish: You’re amazing!