Grace VanderWaal stopped by Rolling Stone to detail how she wrote her song “Ur So Beautiful” for our series The Breakdown. The 15-year-old recently wrapped a short tour named after the song.
VanderWaal revealed that the song is based on her own experiences. “That’s always what I do with my writing,” she explains. “I exaggerate everything and add in my own little sprinkles of magic.”
She wanted to make the term “beautiful” less gendered, since she sees both that and “pretty” almost exclusively used to describe women. “I’ve seen so many very pretty boys,” she says. “We’ve always thought about incorporating that into a song. It was kind of the perfect moment to really make that idea we’ve had for years really come alive.”
VanderWaal’s process is built on spontaneity: this song in particular was written while the track was on a loop. She kept adding lines as it progressed. She compares songwriting to perfume: “If you don’t smell anymore don’t keep spraying it on. Your nose is getting used to it.”
The video for “Ur So Beautiful” was similarly spontaneous. She had been filming her life and recording process, thinking it would possibly be a documentary. Instead, the scenes felt like a perfect match for the song itself. “It was so magical and it just happened.”
VanderWaal has released a few songs this year but has yet to reveal if the new singles are leading to a new album. She released her debut LP, Just the Beginning, in 2017. In 2020, she will make her acting debut in Disney’s Stargirl adaptation.