Charli XCX Dishes Advice to Her Younger Self!

Charli XCX is all smiles in a snap from her spread in Teen Vogue‘s Music Issue, available now!

The 25-year-old songstress opened up about the start of her career, what she’d tell her younger self and evolving pop music. Check it:

On the “uncool” start of her music career: “When I started playing raves in London, I was still 16, so my parents would drive me. I wasn’t even really rebelling because I was going with my parents. I was kind of super uncool.”

On how the pop culture landscape has evolved for female artists: “There’s so much more scope for young female artists. There’s always people that are in disbelief that Taylor would write her own songs or Camila or I would, or anyone. But I think there are so many more high-profile females [now].”

On what she would tell her younger self: “High school ends, and all the cool, mean people in high school probably suck in later life. It’s very important to be yourself. And I think that’s so hard to realize and to kind of become happy with. But I think it’s really cool to be yourself, no matter who that is.”

For more from Charli, visit TeenVogue.com.