„Pop’s New It Girl”, Addison Rae
Addison Rae Easterling is an American singer, actress, and social media personality. Many consider her the new “It Girl” of pop, due to her surprising and iconic breakthrough from being a popular TikToker, to starting an acting career, and finally, rebranding her whole aesthetic to one that embodies the early 2000s.
Addison Rae opening for Lana Del Rey at Wembley Stadium
Rae’s background
Addison was born on October 6, 2000 and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana, to parents Monty Lopez and Sheri Easterling. She has two younger brothers, Enzo and Lucas Lopez, and an older half-sister, Macye Neumeyer, who has two daughters of her own. Rae’s parents initially divorced when she was younger, were constantly on and off, before remarrying in 2017 and ending their relationship by divorcing again in 2022.
Rae started dancing competetively at six, attending competitions across the country. She briefly attended Louisiana State University where she studied broadcast journalism in intention to become a sports broadcaster, but then dropped out when she began to gain popularity on TikTok. She moved to Los Angeles, explaining her decision on Elle magazine: “A few people in LA reached out to me, and I was like ‘I need to go. I need to go.’ So my parents supported me fully.”
The start of her career
To go in depth into the origin of her singer and acting life, let’s start with 2019. Addison joined the app TikTok, an app meant for dancing to trendy songs, and quickly rose to popularity, but it was not only because others liked her videos. Many people made fun of her from the start, mainly bodyshaming her, even though she had a healthy figure, and later, laughing at her „airhead” behavior.
At that period of time, she was famously friends with Kourtney Kardashian and Charli D’amelio – the most popular star of TikTok. She joined The Hype House in December 2019 for a short period of time, along with other famous people from the app, like Charli D’amelio, Dixie D’amelio, Avani Gregg, and Chase Hudson. She left the collective in May of 2020, due to her dedicating most of her time to connecting with her family back in Louisiana.
Back in 2020, people used to pit Charli and Addison against eachother, as they both were one of the biggest TikTok sensations at that time. Others constantly compared one to another, there were endless arguments about which girl dances better. The two were actually close friends and it has never been stated in any way that they don’t like eachother.
„I think you two used to be rivals-„
„I think she’s- I would say she’s… quiet. Like you don’t really hear what she’s up to too much, she keeps her personal life pretty private.”
– Charli D’amelio on Addison Rae in the BFF podcast
There were a couple of controversies around her, the biggest one is her being “racist”. Many people suspected that because of her previous statements and behavior, for example her tweets from 2016, where she called the social movement Black Lives Matter a “cult”, or that she presumably said the N-word. Because of this all being known information in 2020, many haters decided that Addison’s fandom should be called “Raecists”, being a play on words of her surname and the word “racist”. Addison addressed all of the accusations, explaining that she did not know her privileges as a white person and that she shouldn’t have said what was said on the tweets, and her saying the N-word was actually her asking someone “Did you say the N-word?”, misheard for the actual slur by others.
Due to her “ditzy” character and behavior, Addison has said many thing which were turned into memes, for example:
• “Boyfriend, I’m nervous!”
This phrase was said by Addison when she was asked by a TikTok content creator to rate how attractive he is. She responded with “Boyfriend, I’m nervous!” which rose confusion at first, but later became a meme.
• “Hi Drated”
Marc D’amelio (Charli D’amelio’s father) once recorder him telling Addison to say “stay hydrated” while she was drinking water. Rae misheard “Say hi Drated” and responded with “Hi Drated”. This led to others in the bus laugh at her obliviousness. People online called her “a typical blonde” or “slow” because of this, but after her big rebrand, they found an iconic pop culture moment in that video.
• “You don’t know that, she could be Korean”
There is a YouTube video with Nick Bean, Bryce Hall and Addison Rae, where their task was to guess a girl’s age based on the videos she posts. One of the videos showed a girl who they thought was Asian. In response to their statement, Addison said “And if she’s not Asian then what are you going to say?” Bryce replied “She is Asian.” Rae then retorted “You don’t know that, she could be Korean.” This caused a lot of hate to fall onto her, and people were outright with their insults.
• “I need a bad bleep, Addison Rae”
This phrase has its origins in a Kid Laroi song Addison Rae where one of the lyrics say “I need a bad b**** (uh), Addison Rae”. Addison reacted to that lyric and read it out loud. What made it funny was the fact that she read it like a normal sentence instead in the rhythm of the song, and awkwardly thanked him.
• “Let me do this TikTok real quick”
This phrase references a viral moment, where some fans spotted Addison while she was getting ready to record a TikTok video. They asked her for a picture, and she made them wait by saying “Oh yeah, of course. Here, let me do this TikTok real quick”. Many people found it humorous, as she could’ve just taken the picture first and then record the video when the fans leave.
• Tweets about music
People noticed a pattern in Addison’s tweets, where she frequently expressed her love for music. Others spread the image of all the tweets, which became a humorous picture.
Music & acting career
Addison released her debut single Obsessed in 2021. It was intended to be the lead single or her then-upcoming project, but was later set aside. In August of the same year, Rae debuted her first film He’s all that, which accomplished being the most watched Netflix film for the first week after release.
In February 2022, Rae was announced as a cast member of a movie titled Fashionista, produced by Paramount. That same month, multiple of her unreleased songs got leaked on YouTube, which Addison claimed “could mark the knell death for her music career”. However, the songs gained fame online, which inspired her to release her debut EP AR on August 18, 2023. The extended play received generally positive reviews, and debuted at number 19 on the US Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. In November, Addison appeared as the character Gaby in the film Thanksgiving (2023).
Addison’s breakthrough
March 2024 marked her first major moment in a while. Rae was featured on many famous and rising artists’ tracks (Charli XCX’s remix of Von Dutch, Lucifer by A.G. Cook along with Charli XCX). In August, Addison released her first major label single Diet Pepsi through Columbia Records, which was succesful. It peaked on number 54 on the US Billboard Hot Ten, which marked her first entry. Her first major performance was on Charli XCX’s Sweat tour, where she sang Diet Pepsi and joined Charli for the remix of Von Dutch. This was the first time people saw her new image and style.
Charli XCX and Addison Rae together at a Pandora ME collective
In October 2024, Addison released the single Aquamarine, and a remix of the song with Arca was released a month later.
In February 2025, single High Fashion was released along with a music video, which won the Hollywood Music Video Awards „Best Color Grading” award. Following the release, Addison was featured on the cover of Vogue France.
Rae performed „Aquamarine / Arcamarine” with Arca, which was a fairly big succes, and even just then, showed of how big of a rebrand she’s capable of.
In April 2025, Rae released single Headphones On, following it with the release of iconic Fame is a gun track a month after. This introduced her new „persona” to the wider public, and they couldn’t decide on a solid opinion. Many found her change in basically everything „weird” and even „performative”. People said that she’s just doing anything to please the audience, and not actually displaying her true self. The ones who got her vision were ecstatic. This audience believed she will become something greater soon, and…they were absolutely right.
The biggest moment of her music career so far was marked on June 6, 2025. The rising pop star released her debut album Addison. Her stage name change followed the release:
“But I said it in an interview, I was just like ‘Oh I think I’ve you know I’ve grown past just being called Addison Rae.’ And then the album being named Addison kind of was like a tie-in for that.”
“Whoever knows me as Addison Rae and knew me as Addison Rae will always know me as that anyways,” she acknowledged, before confessing, “I just am tired of also signing Addison Rae. It’s really long.”
– Addison Rae on her stage name and album title on Quenlin Blackwell’s Feeding Starving Celebrities
The album was successful on a big scale, debuting at number four on the Billboard 200. It sold 48,500 units (23,000 pure album sales and 25,500 streaming equivalent album units). The album earned 13.4 millions of streams on the release day. Rae celebrated the new album with a concert at New York City’s The Box.
Since then, Addison has performed many times in major locations. In July 2025, she opened for Lana Del Rey’s concert from the UK and Ireland Tour 2025. Rae was a guest on Jimmy Fallon’s Saturday Night Live in October, previously appearing on the late-night talk show in 2021, and performed Diet Pepsi and New York in the recent appearance.
Addison Rae performing Aquamarine at Lana Del Rey’s concert at the Wembley Stadium
Addison’s rebrand
Rae’s huge change is definitely very remarkable and considered seriously impressive by a wide collection of people. She started off as a simple TikToker, and then carefully paved her own way to the top. Even though the public still remembers her past and how she used to be, it’s no longer the first thing they associate her with. Her current aesthetic is heavily inspired by the 2000s’ and icons from that time, the biggest motive being Britney Spears. This not only appears in the way she dresses, acts, or the overall vibe she emits, but also in her songs. Many point out how they found some of Addison’s tracks similar to Britney’s, especially the breathy vocals. Songs like I Got It Bad and Diet Pepsi channel that vibe the most. But despite those similarities, Rae refuses to be compared to the legendary Miss Spears.
„I think she really, really created something that is untouchable and so in it’s own lane that nobody will ever truly be able to replicate what she did for music and even the entertainment industry.”
– Addison Rae on Britney Spears
Because of her artistic connection to Spears, a lot of people want and ask bout Addison playing the icon star in her biopic. Rae has spoken about it, explaining that Britney and she are on totally different levels, and should not even be compared.
„I honestly don’t think anyone deserves to play Britney… she’s such an enigma and such an icon. I don’t even think it’s right to compare me to her at all.”
– Addison Rae on playing as Britney Spears in her biopic
As it has been stated a couple of times before, people think practically anything Addison does is „performative” or „fake”, but her considering Britney as the blueprint was known before her public display of the new aesthetic. Rae has been spotted reading The Woman In Me, Spears’ memoir in late 2023. This shows that she doesn’t only take inspiration from the star for the vibe, but she treats her like an idol. She studies Britney’s life to understand her. She doesn’t only enjoy the music and the concept of her like she presumably does according to others, she loves Britney.
Apart from that, her aesthetic is also individual. Her outfits, both on and off stage, can be considered experimental and different.
Credits
Addison Rae opening for Lana Del Rey at Wembley Stadium
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Charli XCX and Addison Rae together at a Pandora ME collective
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Addison Rae performing Aquamarine at Lana Del Rey’s concert at the Wembley Stadium
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