From The Big Screen to Deep Songs, Mckenna Grace Is Ready to Tell Her Own Stories
Mckenna Grace by Christian Högstedt for @sbjctjournal
Mckenna Grace is the personification of authentic storytelling in every possible way. As a veteran actress at just fifteen years old, the multi-hyphenated creative force is one of the most hard-working young women in entertainment today. Even with a decade’s worth of experience in acting and an Emmy nomination for her current role as Esther Keys in The Handmaid’s Tale already under her belt, Grace isn’t slowing down. In fact, she’s just getting started.
When the film industry came to a sudden halt due to the pandemic in 2020, Grace’s creativity and need to tell stories didn’t stop with it. A pause in making movies gave her the chance to tap into her own stories and finally share her own point of view on things through original music.
The star’s latest single, “do all my friends hate me?” presents itself as a moving ballad, tapping into the assumptions almost everyone has about wondering whether people like you or not. What makes the track so gripping and honest, however, is Grace’s authenticity. With lyrics that sound directly lifted off her notebook page and gently painted in poetic perfection, the track is a showcase of Grace’s talent. The song at its core tells a painfully honest and relatable story, almost as if she’s taught her voice how to act through each word, lyric, and note just as expertly as she would on screen.
From quarantine isolation to everyday longing, “do all my friends hate me?” is proof that - in a world where social connections have never been more important - anyone who feels alone isn’t truly alone. In celebration of her song’s release, Grace has highlighted the work at The Jed Foundation, an organization that works to prevent teen suicide and whose resources have been helpful to the artist herself.
Over the course of the past few years, Grace naturally discovered that songwriting was a creative outlet for her, and though different than working on a film, through her own song stories, she still tells narratives that are more honest and open than most young artists today. In 2021, Grace released her debut single, “Haunted House,” - a dark yet captivating pop track coated in mixed messages and deep lyrics - and remains today excited about her future in music.
With a bright persona so opposite to the voice you hear in “do all my friends hate me,” Mckenna Grace chatted with Amplify Her Voice over Zoom to talk about what inspired her to begin making music, her experience as a young woman in the entertainment industry, and how to keep going when rejection gets thrown your way.
You started acting at a very young age and now you’re doing music. Was there something that inspired you when you were young that made you realize you wanted to be an artist and create?
I’ve always been a really creative person. I’ve had inspirations whenever I was little but you know, inspirations from whenever you’re four versus when you’re fifteen is so different so I feel like I’ve just been a creative person and somehow I managed to find myself in this, and as I’ve grown, I’ve learned to love it a lot! As I’ve gotten older in this industry, I just appreciate more and more what I get to do.
After acting for such almost ten years now, how does it feel for you to start doing music?
It’s really exciting! I love music so much and getting to create it is so special, especially since usually I’m playing someone else and telling someone else’s story which is equally as important as telling your own but it’s just nice to be able to write things from my heart and to be able to share it with people.
Is it scary for you to start out in music, moving in from the film industry into music? Is there anything that you might be shy about or is it more of excitement?
It’s really scary starting anything new whether it’s your fiftieth acting project or your first acting project or your 100th song or your first song. It’s always going to be really scary doing anything for the first time, but it’s also really exciting and I’m excited to be exploring a broader sense of music because the two songs that I’ve released so far - I don’t really know if I have many more like them. I have a lot of stuff planned for the future. I’m kind of moving into a different genre of music heading forward. I’m excited! I have so much stuff planned!
I can’t wait. Your newest song right now, “do all my friends hate me?” seems super relatable, especially at the start of the third year of a pandemic. Not being able to connect. Three years in a lot of people still haven’t been able to see their loved ones or their friends. Do you think that’s how this song came about or was it something different for you?
It probably was. I’ve always struggled with feeling like everyone secretly thinks I’m annoying and nobody actually wants to hang out with me. I've just always kind of thought that and whenever you’re three years into a pandemic or even at the start of it, I feel like that was really amplified. I got into a two week quarantine, I didn’t talk to my friends for a little bit and I just feel like everybody hated me, and so at the writing session while I was there and I was like, “You guys! Everyone hates me,” and they were like, “First of all, no they don’t. Also, why don’t we write a song about it?” So I decided to write down what I was feeling so hopefully it could help someone who feels the same way.
As far as the music video, was filming it different for you? Does it feel more personal when you’re singing your own song or did you approach it as taking on another acting role?
I think it was a little bit of both. It did feel a little bit more personal than usual, but I think it was also a personal experience because I was co-directing and writing all the music videos so it’s really cool to be able to see my vision come to life. I love being an instrument in creating someone else’s vision, but it’s cool to see my own brought to life.
Is that why it’s so important for you to be writing your own music and writing the stories for your own music videos?
I find it important because I just personally wouldn’t really take a song from someone else if they wrote one for me or something like that. I’m sure I’d love it because I love telling other people’s stories, but I feel like with this, I don’t want to be singing about what I don’t know about. So if I go into a writing session and I’m going to write with someone, and they say, “Why don’t we write about being cheated on?” I’d say, “You know what? I would love to, but you should give your incredible ideas to someone else,” because I don’t know what that feels like and I want to be able to put my own emotions into a song. I only want to sing about personal things to me that way I’m able to talk about them truthfully.
It keeps you authentic!
Yeah, and I like writing my own music videos because I’m a very visual person. I can just envision what the video will look like as I’m writing the song and I find it very fun to be able to create that.
I read that the act of writing music became an inspirational outlet for you during quarantine. Do you wanna talk about that and how you discovered it?
It’s kind of the same as writing in a diary or writing thoughts down on a piece of paper and then tearing it up. There are all these different types of things that a therapist can recommend for you to do, but I found that it was nice to be able to get my thoughts and feelings out in a new, creative way and be able to share it with people. I just started writing. I don’t even remember how I first wrote a song or why I wrote a song, but I just did and it just kind of stuck. It was so therapeutic for me and it still is.
I know in your song you talk about connection and staying connected to other people. I wanted to get your opinion on social media, and if you think it’s a good thing when it comes to friendships or if it’s harmful sometimes?
I’ve made a lot of friends through social media the past few years. I feel like you should always be wary whenever you’re making connections through a screen, but also - if you don’t have any other way, like me - I only really work with adults so it’s hard for me to meet other people my age sometimes. I don’t go to regular school, but I’ve actually made three close friends online! I think that it’s nice. I like it and I like having TikTok and now I have these DMs where I can also connect with other creators, and it makes that connection so simple and easy.
Has there ever been challenges in the entertainment industry where you found roadblocks in your way just because you’re a girl? Did you ever have experiences where people discriminated against you because of your gender?Yeah, I feel being just a female in general, we all kind of experience that. Especially being a young girl in an industry dominated by a lot of adults, I definitely feel that. Some people might not take you seriously because you are a woman, and then some people might not take you seriously because you’re a teenager or a kid, and when you combine the two, it’s like, “I have nothing to say!” but I feel like that’s why it’s important for young women in the same field as me to stand up for themselves because it’s really to get walked all over.
It’s really inspiring for me to be able to watch other women and young women in my field really rock. Like Marsai Martin, I just think she’s so brilliant and I got the honor of getting to work with her in a film but seeing another young girl go and produce projects and produce films and create all these incredible things - It’s so cool to watch, but in the ten years I’ve been doing this, I’ve definitely felt that and it’s funny because I think I’ve felt it more in my teenage years especially because now because I really do have something to say.
Well, I’m so glad that other young girls and future generations have you and your art to look up to to see all your hard work and that you’re standing up for yourself too.
Thank you so much! That means so much to me because I have a lot of people that I look up to and it makes me feel happy that I can get to be close to that for someone else.
Our readers want to know how to make it into creative spaces and entertainment spaces. Do you have any advice on becoming a writer, actor, creative in entertainment that you want to share?
There are just going to be a lot of “No’s.” There are just so many “No’s” on a daily basis and you don’t always see that, especially for people that do work a lot. You often only see the things that people do get, and you’re like, “Oh my gosh! Look at them. They’re getting everything and doing all this, I wish that could be me,” but there are so many “No’s” that you didn’t really see and so many quiet patches and moments where you’re debating whether or not you should keep going in this industry or whether or not you’re ever going to actually make it. There are so many moments like that all the time because you constantly get told no. There’s so much rejection and I feel like it’s just important, that if being an actor, a writer, a singer, or anything in the creative field is important to you and you know how to do it and it’s something that you’re really passionate about, then just keep going and work hard to be your best at what you do. Just don’t get discouraged by all the “No’s” because if you don’t, there’s probably a chance that you are going to make it.
“do all my friends hate me?” is available for streaming now on all music platforms.