Only 18 when she released her debut album, Olivia Rodrigo quickly established herself as the voice of Gen Z. Mega-hits from SOUR, like “drivers license” and “good 4 u,” topped the charts, and Rodrigo received numerous awards for the album. But during the summer when she shot to stardom, the star quickly pivoted from pop to politics. From vaccines to abortion, she’s pushed progressive politics to her fanbase, which mostly consists of young women.
Olivia Rodrigo was hardly a nobody before her hit album SOUR turned her into a pop sensation in 2021. The latest product of the Disney Channel star pipeline, Rodrigo starred in the Disney+ mockumentary High School Musical: The Musical: The Series since 2019 and previously acted in the Disney Channel show Bizaardvark. But the teen star took the plunge into true stardom with the release of SOUR, an angsty album that, as a friend of mine says, “sounds exactly how being in high school felt.”
Rodrigo Pushes COVID-19 Vaccine
In July 2021, Rodrigo made a pilgrimage to the White House — a trip that then–White House press secretary Jen Psaki said happened of Rodrigo’s own initiative — to meet with Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Joe Biden. Her goal? Convince the kids to get the shot.
From the White House press briefing room, Rodrigo read talking points crafted by White House officials, exhorting her fellow teenagers to get vaccinated. “It doesn’t matter if you’re young and healthy,” she said in a video posted after her appearance, “Let’s get vaccinated!”
Olivia Rodrigo is at the White House today to meet with President Biden and Dr. Fauci and discuss the importance of young Americans getting vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/s95KtOkrsF
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 14, 2021
Democrats were, of course, thrilled to have a young pop star act as their mouthpiece to her millions of social media followers. Rodrigo’s trip was part of the Biden administration’s strategy to convince unvaccinated Americans to get the jab by tapping into influencer marketing. The administration “recruited YouTube stars, social media influencers and celebrities … and highlighted efforts by popular dating apps to encourage young singles to promote their vaccination status,” the New York Times reported.
Abortion Activism Takes Center Stage
The following summer, Rodrigo made a splash during her performance in Glastonbury, England, the day after the U.S. Supreme Court released the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. The then-20-year-old singer prefaced her duet with British singer-songwriter Lily Allen by dedicating Allen’s song “F*** You” to the court’s conservative justices.
“So many woman and so many girls are going to die because of [the Dobbs decision],” Rodrigo claimed. “I wanted to dedicate this next song to the five members of the supreme court who have showed us that at the end of the day, they truly don’t give a sh*t about freedom.… We hate you! We hate you!”
Now, a year and half — and one new album — later, Rodrigo is putting her money where her mouth is. On the first night of the tour for her 2023 album, GUTS, Rodrigo announced the launch of the Fund 4 Good, which will support “girls’ education, support reproductive rights, and prevent gender based violence.” A portion of proceeds from the tour’s ticket sales will be directed toward Fund 4 Good, named after her hit song “good 4 you.”
Additionally, Rodrigo has partnered with the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), a network of more than 100 independent abortion funds. According to the NNAF website, these abortion funds “directly support people seeking abortions” and “provide money for abortion procedures.” The NNAF will host a booth at each stop of Rodrigo’s North American tour for fans to “learn more information about the partnership.”
“Thank you so much for supporting this cause that I care so deeply about,” Rodrigo told her fans.
Spokeswoman for Gen Z?
Unlike many earlier Disney Channel actresses who made a messy transition to stardom, Rodrigo has navigated the change rather smoothly — and has faced considerably less micromanagement from Disney. Stars like Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus, and Demi Lovato spiraled into chaos and controversy after finding freedom from Disney’s public relations bubble.
But Rodrigo is charting a different path. Despite having an active contract with Disney when she released SOUR, Rodrigo embraced the edgy side of being a teenager without blowing up her life, swearing a few times on the album while getting good grades in her homeschool AP classes. Even as a Disney star, Rodrigo enjoyed relative freedom to share political opinions.
“I didn’t really pay attention to [kickback] or let it affect me,” she told the Guardian. “Being a puppet … ‘doesn’t work any more.’”
She’s never really been a puppet for Disney, but Rodrigo’s views of power and influence are a bit myopic if she considers herself a nonconformist. Tally her vaccine promotion with her vocal support for abortion, and it’s clear who serves to profit from her activism.
Gen Z votes are ripe for picking in the upcoming election. As the political gender gap grows, with young women becoming more liberal as young men lean conservative, Democrats have a chance to shore up support by reaching out to Gen Z women. And with, as the New York Times reports, “a third of adults under 30 regularly get[ting] their news from TikTok,” it’s hard to think of a better ally than Olivia Rodrigo — especially after Biden’s geriatric attempts at generational pandering fell flat.
And though Taylor Swift holds the premium celebrity endorsement, she only voices her political beliefs on occasion. Rodrigo, on the other hand, is branding herself as an angry feminist for a new generation even as she makes a name in pop music. She’ll sing about teenage love while promoting abortion funds. For all the recent debate about whether conservatives are duty-bound to hate Taylor Swift, Rodrigo’s activism makes Swift’s younger years seem like long-lost days of innocence.
Mary Frances Myler is a writer from Northern Michigan now living in Washington, D.C. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2022.
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