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singing about something that might’ve just hap-
pened,” she says. “I’m like, Whoa, I didn’t know I
felt that way about that. That’s the only time I
really let that float out.”
Though she seems about 48 years old profes-
sionally and spiritually, VanderWaal has just
turned sweet 16 when we meet. The big day was
spent in Manhattan with friends, singing. “If any-
one knows me, they know I’m in love with New
York City and I want to live here really badly,” she
says. (Her hometown is about 35 miles outside of
the city.) “So obviously I came on my birthday,
and we sang karaoke and it was really fun.”
Her age also makes itself apparent in a
delightful overeagerness; when asked about her
dog, Frankenstein, the grouchy silver pug over-
seeing her photo shoot from his carrier, she
exclaims, “I would die for him. I would get tor-
tured. If someone said, ‘I am going to torture you,
let you slowly die in pain, black out, wake up,
scream, die again,’ I would do it for that dog.”
A list of her goals is rattled off with similar
fervor. “This year, I’m releasing part two of my
EP, and then I want to go on tour for that. I have
so many dreams for this tour,” she says, raising
her eyes to the ceiling as she envisions it. “Then
I want to work with Chanel.” As of press time,
she was planning to attend the brand’s show
during Paris Fashion Week, calling it “a dream
of mine for so many years. I have so many
dreams. Probably too many. I’m ready for them
to not come true, though.” She pauses at the ter-
rible thought. “I’m ready for them to come true
at the same time.”
Her parents have encouraged her to be more
realistic, prepare for college and a normal job,
“because I’m so young. I haven’t really broken
through yet. It could easily fall out,” VanderWaal
says. It seems especially impossible here at the
shoot, when all adult conversation ceases
because she’s just picked up her ukulele to sing.
There’s a star dangling over her head.
April 2020 MARIECLAIRE.COM 97