Hey, it's Julia Michaels. And I'm going to play 21 questions. Let's go. This will be interesting. 
Okay. Question number one. Describe your Mindset in three words.
I would say it's thoughtful.

It's a bit twisted, a ton and um, I don't know, kind, I guess. 
Question number two. One day you decide to be cult leader. What kind of cult do you create? 
Probably something around hot Cheetos. 
Question number three. Do aliens exist? 
No idea.

Potentially if they are, that would be very cool. Um, I hope that they’re exactly how they're always pictured, which is green with huge black eyes. That would be awesome. 
Question number four. What's the worst version of hell you can imagine?
Um, I probably am not allowed to say that on this. So I will not.

Question number five. What's the best version of heaven you can imagine? 
I would probably say, like, Adele is singing constantly and there's, like, never ending amounts of, um, pancakes. That would be sick and, like, you know, unicorns and, and centaurs.
Question number six. What's your best piece of dating or relationship advice? 
Stay the fuck away from

toxic people. They suck. Don't do it. Not worth it. Not, not worth it. Just don't. Unsubscribe. 
Question number seven. What is your zombie apocalypse survival philosophy? 
Honestly, I'd like to say that I’d probably just, like, hunker down and be one of those people that has, like, one of the weird

panic rooms full of food and that kind of thing. But I also think I, I could kick some ass. Like, I think if push came to shove, I could kick some major zombie ass. Like, I think people would really want me on their team.
Question eight. When was the last time you farted in front of someone else? 
Never. I don't. I'm a woman. I'm a lady. 
Number nine.

What is one of the best failures or losses of your life? 
One of the best failures or losses of your life? I don't know. I think one of the, the biggest losses of my life was probably this piano that I had when I was 12. I still think about it often and I miss it. I hope I see her sometime in the future.

Question number 10. Drop the hardest hitting motivational quote you can muster. 
The only one I can think of is the one from A Cinderella Story. “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”
Question 11. What's a controversial opinion you have? 
I guess my controversial opinion is that women should grow their body hair. I didn't think that would be

controversial, but I guess it is. 
Question number 12. If you were a beverage, what kind would you be?
I would probably be, uh, some sort of boba drink. I'm like a, like a peach strawberry tea with some boba in it. 
Question number 13. What is one of your most awkward memories? 
I remember one time in elementary school, there was a guy, like, a boy

that I really liked and I was trying to get his attention and someone kicked a soccer ball in my face and my nose was bleeding.Definitely got his attention. Uh, good, good times. 
Question number 14. What personal physical item can I not live without? 
I’m not much of a physical person. Like, I’m happy to leave my phone at home.

I think, like, something I, I can’t live without that isn’t physical, maybe, like, emotionally can’t live without is, like, human connection. Connection or love or physical touch or something like that. But I’m not very materialistic. There isn’t something where I’m like, “Oh, I, I need this forever.” Like, it’s not that important to me. 
Question number 15. What's

something socially acceptable you disagree with. 
Gladiator sandals. I think they’re atrocious. They should not be around anymore. 
Question number 16. What will people in the future think was really stupid or crazy about how people think today?
I mean, all they have to do is, um, look back at who our president

was. That's about it. 
Question number 17. What's a lesson that has taken the longest for you to learn? 
I think the one that's taken me the longest to learn is how to love myself. It's a journey and a process, and it's not, I'm not all the way there. And I don't know if I'll ever, ever be all the way there, but it's something that I'm learning and something that I've,

I think I'm getting better at every day. 
Question number 18. How do you want to be remembered? 
I want to be remembered as somebody that really cared about music, really cared about people. Somebody that is known for being authentic and honest. Um, and yeah, someone that just, you know,

really, um, tried. 
Question number 19. What is love? 
Uh, love is beautiful. It's amazing. It's one of the best feelings in the world when you have it. And I think you can find love in all different kinds of places, you know, not just in people, but I think you can find love in places, like, places and in, you know, food and, um,

friends. I think you can find a lot of love in chosen family. And I think there's so much love everywhere. It's just people suck and don't say it.  Question 20. Take a moment to record a message for yourself to hear one year from now.  Dear Julia. I know that things have been very weird for you lately. You're going through a lot of transition and you're trying to find a lot

of balance in your life. I think I hope that a year from now you'll have found a little bit more of it and you'll feel more grounded in the decisions that you've made and you'll feel proud of those decisions that you've made, even if they feel really hard right now. And you're loved, very loved. 
Um, question 21.

Lastly, what do you want your Mindset listeners to know?
I want you to know that everything that I talked about is very real. And I talked about a lot of things that I have not talked about before. Um, especially things about my family and how I grew up and where I grew up. Those are things that I just don't usually talk about because even though I'm a very open person, I'm open about the things that I want people to

know about. Other than that, I'm pretty private. I think, you know, everything that was talked about here is, is a, is a good sort of deep dive into who I am and why I am. 
Thank you for listening to my Mindset. I hope that you had a good time. I had a good time and, yeah. Thanks.

Hear a different side of Julia as she makes her way through our list of 21 Questions

21 Questions with Julia

Hey I'm Julia, and I'm going to give you some tips that have helped me on self-care.
I’m always in the studio. And I love it. But some days I'll wake up and I'm like, “I don't want to write today.” I can always tell when I'm feeling burnt out. I know I have a session with this artist and I know that it would be really smart for me to do, but I'm tired. I

feel a bit depleted emotionally and I find that I don't have a lot to write about.
I can't be present with people unless I'm present with myself. I need to go be somewhere that isn't a room, just for the sake of my mental health. You know, things that make me feel closer to myself because I know that if I go in that session feeling the way that I

do, nothing's gonna get done. 
Sometimes I just take a drive when I'm feeling sad. I listen to music and sometimes I think subconsciously I just end up at the beach because I'm very drawn to water. I'll just park. I'll get out. I'll sit. 
The waves are big. They're crashing all around. And it feels a bit chaotic but in the weirdest instance, it also just feels very free.

There's no social media, there's nobody looking at you or caring about what you're doing or anything like that. It's just you and the ocean.
Sometimes, I'll, like, inch closer to the water. I'll put my feet in and then, you know, depending on how internal I am, I'll just get closer to the water to the point that I just, I'm just in it. And then, you know, every once in a while, I'll just, fully clothed, no other

backup clothes, no towel. And it feels really cold but good.
If you feel like you don't deserve time for yourself, that's just mental. That's all in your head. You do deserve time. And it's really easy to feel guilty for taking that time to yourself. But if you don't have that time for yourself, you won't have time to give

everybody else. You'll be too tired. You'll be too depleted. Defeated. And I think that time is really necessary for you.
If you're working a 9 to 5, you shouldn't feel chained to what you're doing, you should be able to have the time to live or do something you really love. You know, it doesn't have to be, like, a grand thing. It doesn't have to be an all day thing.
Eat something you love.

Go see a friend that makes you happy.Watch something that makes you happy. If you can, go get a massage or go get your nails done. Go get a haircut. Sit in the woods somewhere, put your feet on the ground. Close your eyes and listen to water. Little things like that, I think can really help

so much. 
Self care and self health is just so important. It just is. So if people are making you feel guilty, those aren't the kind of people you should be around, to be honest. As long as you find the time for yourself to do that and make time for yourself on your time to do that, then you should be able to do that.
So go

Julia shares her tips on self-care and how you can make time for yourself.

Tips on Self-Care

Hi, I'm Julia. And in this booster, I'm gonna talk about communication. 
I heard this story one time when I was a kid where this kid says something bad to this other kid and the parent hears it. And the parent tells this kid every time they say something mean to somebody to put a nail in a plank.

So, you know, over time they fill up this plank with nails. And so the parent tells them to take out all the nails in the plank, but there's still holes in the plank. 
I think words aren't just words. They really hold weight. They can really destroy somebody. Words hurt more than physical things do, sometimes.

Words stick, you know, I don't want to say anything that's gonna hurt somebody. So I try to be really safe with my words. I think it's also a bit of nature versus nurture stuff, cause I went through a relationship where I felt very small and I, I never want to make anybody feel the way that I felt then. 
So I try to choose my words wisely. I'm not a confrontational person, so

sometimes communication can feel, like, conflict even when it's not.
And I always appreciate people that are able to bring it up and how strong we feel afterward. I have one friend that is very blunt and she's always the first one to be like, “Hey, I didn't like the way this made me feel.” And I'm like, “Hey, I appreciate the fact that you are telling me that this is how you feel cause if you wouldn't have told me, maybe I wouldn't have known.” 
I think the

hardest thing about being a good communicator is communicating in a way that doesn't offend anybody and is patient and listens, really sees everything from every side and trying to keep a very calm demeanor through it because, you know what? What someone is communicating to you it's probably really hard for them to do or say, you know? So you getting upset

about it is probably even harder for them when it's taken them this long to talk to you about it. 
So I think just, you know, listening and trying to be rational is good. 
Communication really strengthens relationships. And sometimes the conversations are really difficult and sometimes the conversations aren't conversations you really want to have, but sometimes they're necessary to have in order to

keep a relationship or friendship really growing.

Julia shares her advice on being a good communicator and support for anyone who may struggle with communication. 

How to Be a Good Communicator

Hey, this is Julia. And I'm going to talk to you about how to basically songwrite without proper training. 
I had to do a seminar one time at Berkeley, and I was like, I'm not qualified to teach anybody here because I don't know music theory. I didn't go to school for this. I can’t tell you what key most songs are in, or can I tell you the key

that I'm currently writing the song in. I just know what something feels like when it feels really good. I rely solely on heart and instincts, really, to drive a song more than I rely on anything. But if you're somebody like me that grew up writing songs in their room, couldn't afford to go to school for the thing that you love, I would

say, rely on your instincts and trust your gut and try to position yourself in places where you can learn, you know, try and make sure that you're even in the location that you need to be in for that dream to become a reality. Find a mentor, find an internship somewhere where you can be surrounded by different people in the music industry. 
I mean, that's what I did.

I started doing demos around the city so that I could meet other songwriters and for people to know that I existed and then started working with one, and then that became a bit of a domino effect where they would tell people about me and then I would work with them and then so on and so on and so on and that's how I ended up here. 
And there are going to be times when you question yourself, you question what you're doing, you question if you're working with the

right people, and I think that's good. I think it's good to question those things. And I think you'll know if you need to switch it up and try new things.
There was a point where I was working with the same people and it felt very monotonous. And I started working with different people and it livened up my love for music. So I think if you are more of, like, an intuitive songwriter, I would just say really try to just

find your way there and write with everybody, songwriting really is so collaborative. If you're not willing to work with people, then you shouldn't be there. 
I'll really like something. But if, you know, three of my collaborators are saying, “I don't think that's right. I think it should be this.” Then I'm like, “Okay, I'm gonna trust my collaborators and see where it goes.” Sometimes I'll be like, “No guys, I am telling you this is right. I’m telling you this is right.”

It's funny. Actually have, like, a friend of mine that I work with quite often. And he'll do this thing, which is so funny. We're, like, we'll be writing something and we'll do some sort of melody and I'll, I'll be like, “No, it's this.” And he’s like, “No, no, no, it can't be that. Because if you go dun, dun, dun. Oh, no. Oh no, that's good. That's good.” And I’m like, “You’re so ridiculous. Oh my goodness.” But I

think that's the beauty of collaborating is, like, you have to know when to give and when to put it down, when to be like, “Yeah, I think this, this is good.” 
Go through the songwriting bootcamp. Even if you write a bunch of bad songs, it's important to go through that and really put your 10,000 hours in, into everything that has to do with songwriting.
Trust your instincts. Write what you would

want to hear on the radio. Don't chase trends. Don't try and do what everybody else is doing. You just need to do what you want to do and be authentically you in whatever capacity that is and, and make the thing that you love. Cause I think, at the end of the day, authenticity wins.
Believe in yourself, even when it's hard. Don’t give up. I know it's easy to throw in towels, but you can do this.

If I can do it, coming from literally nothing and working my way up, you can absolutely do it.

Julia shares her insight on how to write a song, even if you don’t have any proper training. 

How to Make Music With No Training

Hey. Hey, you. Get up. 
I know you don't want to get up right now. I know that you're tired. I know that your week may have been a little tough. I know you don't want to go do the thing that you have to do today. 
Today might be scary.

Or might be something that feels a bit monotonous or you feel tired. 
But you know what? I'm here to let you know that you are awesome, you are smart, you can do this. I know you think you can't, but you can. You are loved. I love you.

You're gonna have an awesome day. You're going to kill it. I believe in you ,and I'm rooting for you, and I hope you have the best day ever. 
So get up, have that smoothie that you love, go hike that place that you really like, or have pancakes with a lot of syrup, or go pet your dog or someone else's dog, as long as they let you.
And just get the fuck up.

Julia gives a pep talk to help you start your day. 

A Morning Pep Talk

Hey, this is Julia, and I'm gonna be talking about silver linings.
I don't know if I really think of myself as an optimistic person. I think I've always been a bit of a pessimist myself. But yeah, I think, as of late, I've tried to see the brighter

side of things. Like, ‘Okay, yeah, this could go wrong but, like, what could go right?’
When the pandemic happened, it was obviously a shock for a lot of people. I remember a lot of my friends didn't even want to write songs, and for me, I was like, “What do you mean we're not writing anymore?”
I was scared like most people. I didn't leave my

house. I was afraid to go to the store. It was, yeah, it was just a bit of a weird time.But I think the pandemic made it so that I just appreciate things more. It made me appreciate touring. Because there was a time where I was just like, ‘I don't want to do this. This is too much for me.’ But now I miss, you know, being immersed in different cultures and seeing people and familiar faces.

I appreciate friends and family more. It took the pandemic, I think, to bring a lot of people together. Even people within my family that hadn't talked to each other in years. It restored a lot of… just relationships.
I think for me, looking for silver linings, it's just important because

of the way that it affects my mental health. If I'm just constantly a Debbie downer, it affects, you know, the way I wake up in the morning, affects the way that I eat, affects the way that I sleep, affects the way that I interact with people, affects the way that I write. And it's just, it's not worth it.
If I am looking for failure, I'll get failure. If I have a bit of optimism toward it, maybe it will

affect the way that I think about it and maybe it will happen. And then if it doesn't happen, not take it so hard and not blame myself for not giving it all that I've, I can. Because I did.
It's like, okay, yes, this is happening and it's really sad and I can't control it. Instead, I'm gonna focus on the fact that I'm alive. I'm not having anxiety today. I'm breathing. I can get out of bed. I can go

downstairs. I can eat this thing. I can take a drive. I can call my mom. I can call my friends. I can do something that makes me feel good. I think there's silver linings in those things too, like being grateful for those things that you’re able to have and able to do.
I know what it's like to try and get yourself out of a

situation when you're in it. It's so hard. It's so, so hard, but you gotta just keep pushing and keep trying and not be so hard on yourself.
It's okay. It's okay.

Julia gives her tips on looking on the bright side and finding the silver lining in life. 

How to Find the Silver Lining

Hey, I'm Julia Michaels. And in this booster, I'm gonna talk about the importance of hiring your weaknesses. 
The owner of Spanx, she's like one of the only self-made billionaires in the world. Like she said, the smartest thing I ever heard, which was: hire your weaknesses. 
If there's something that you know that you're not very great at, but someone else is,

be a team. Crush that shit. 
Like, I suck at social media. I'm not the kind of person that's really glued to my phone. I want to be connected to everybody and I want to know how people are doing and all of that stuff. I just, I get so immersed in songwriting. So, of course, I'm gonna hire somebody to help me. I need to have people on my team that hold me accountable. Like, “Hey, you should really check in with people.” Or like, “Hey, you should post this cause I know how

happy it made you that day.” And it's like, ‘Oh yeah, I, I should do that. And I, and I will.’ 
And honestly, I'm not very good at saying no to certain things. So I have an incredible manager to be like, “You know what? Let me do that for you, you know? So you can just stay creative and you don't have to do this.” 
In terms of, of songwriting, you know, I think the best thing about songwriting is collaborating. I think it's really important. And it's important when you go into

the room to know that if you have an ego, it's not gonna fucking work. It's just not. 
There may be a lyric you wouldn't think of, or a melody you wouldn't think of, or, or a twist on something that you wouldn't think of and vice versa. And it's so cool and interesting to see, you know, two different minds come together to make one really great song. 
You know, I definitely think hire your weaknesses is, like, really important.

I think it takes… I don't want to say balls. I want to say pussy. You know, it really takes pussy. 
Like, go after what you fucking want. Just fucking do it.

Julia gives her advice on how to get what you want. 

Know Your Weaknesses

This is Julia, and in this booster I'm gonna be talking about my experience with therapy and how it's changed my life.
I know a lot of people that have been afraid of therapy because people think that it's for people that are crazy, quote unquote. People think of therapy as, like, ‘Oh, there's

something wrong with you.’ It’s like, most of the time, there is something wrong with you. That's why you go to therapy, it’s cause you want to talk about it. That doesn't mean that you're clinically insane. There's nothing wrong with it. It's totally and completely normal.
I think a lot of the time why we go to therapy is because we don't feel heard or we don't speak up enough. We don't confront our problems. We are afraid of ourselves.

We feel like we're burdening people with our problems if we speak.
With my anxiety, I realized I don't talk to people. I really harbored a lot of things. Because I am so internal, I'm talking to myself and I'm writing about it, but, you know, not really talking about it.
I remember not really talking much the first couple times because I was nervous. I had never been to therapy before, and

I didn't really know how to talk about my problems. And it was actually pretty scary.
But I learned so much from therapy. I learned a lot of techniques on how to manage my anxiety.
The two that I really took in were grounding, which is where, no matter where you are, you just take off your shoes and your socks and you scrunch your feet into the carpet or

the floor or the grass or the sand or the stone, whatever it is. You start explaining things that you see, things you taste, things you hear, and things you smell. You become aware of your surroundings. 
And then another thing I learned was rationalizing with myself, equating something that had happened in my childhood to something that was happening to me now. If I was having anxiety about a certain thing, it's like, ‘Oh,

it's probably because when I was this age, this happened. But that's not now, that was then, and I can do this now.’ And it really helped me so very much.
Therapy is such a nice palate cleanser. It's like there's, like, just, like, a bunch of, like, gunk in your mind and it's just, like, chipping away at it until it looks a bit clean. And you're like, ‘You know, this isn't all the way clean, there's still, like, a bit of rust in the

corner and there's still a little dust over here, but this is more manageable than it looked before.’ 
You're never too old to go to therapy. I think you're never too old to want to learn things about yourself and why you are the way that you are.
You know, it takes the right therapist. Someone that gives, I wouldn't say advice, but, like, asks you questions in a meaningful way that makes you sort of dig deeper and think

more. It's gonna take trial and error. You're probably not going to keep the first therapist you use. But even just, like, having someone listen. Even if they say nothing, you know, just having someone there to listen is good in itself.
I know you may be on the fence about therapy, but I've seen it change a lot of people's lives,

including my own. I know it can be really scary but sometimes you just have to try. 
I honestly think that people that go to therapy are some of the strongest people that I know. The fact that you are wanting to better yourself and get to the root of your problems instead of just suppressing it every day and not questioning why these things are happening, I think that's really brave and it's important for you to do those

things. I applaud anybody that is willing to go and willing to work on themselves.
What's the harm in doing it even just once? If you don't like it, you don't have to go back. But I think the first step is going.
I would really encourage going and I hope that you go, and I hope that it, it opens your eyes to a lot of different things and I hope that you like it.

Julia opens up about the impact therapy has had on her life and the tips and techniques she has learned from it. 

Therapy Changed My Life

Hey, it's Julia Michaels here. This is about my love for being alone. 
Being alone and being lonely are two very different things. There's a lot more fun in being alone than people think. You know, like, I think there's a lot of fear of being alone, but I think that's also because if you're alone, you have to face yourself and people don't wanna face themselves. I think for me, being alone is

awesome. When I'm alone, I'm like, “Okay, I'm gonna go see that movie that I've been wanting to see for a really long time. I'm gonna, you know, go swimming. I'm gonna go, like, I'm gonna read.” That's being alone. 
Being lonely is so different. Like, lonely, for me, is depression. Like, lonely, for me, Is not being able to get out of bed, you know, like,

crying a lot, Being lonely feels like a hole that you just can't get out of. Everything feels really dark and dull and sort of like you're in some weird pit, not feeling present with yourself. Not feeling present with anybody around you at all, cause I think you can be lonely even in a sea of

people. 
I mean, I've definitely had the loneliness in seas of people. Like I've, I've definitely been, like, even on stage or, like, I'm singing these things, but I feel nothing. Like, I'm not even there and you feel empty. That's what lonely feels like to me, it’s, like, just emptiness. You know, I think just finding things, small things that make me happy start to make me feel less

lonely. 
And then also being able to talk to people is, is something. There's a lot that can be done by just talking to people. Cause I think when you're lonely, you self isolate, and you, like, you don't want people to sort of feel the way that you do. So then you just sort of dim yourself down even more, and it becomes this sort of vicious cycle.

You know, I would hope that you would have somebody close to you that you can talk to. Growing up, for me, I didn't really have anybody, but I would hope that you have someone that's willing to listen. And if they love you, they will. And I think we forget that. And if people don't want to talk to you, that doesn't mean that there isn't somebody

that will. I know it can be really scary, but sometimes you just have to try because at times, I think it's more unhealthy to keep it in than it is to let it out no matter what the consequence could be, but who knows? It could be a really beautiful thing too.

Julia talks about the importance of understanding the difference between 'Being Alone' versus 'Loneliness'. 

Alone vs. Lonely

This Mindset collection contains adult language. 
Hey everyone. It’s Julia Michaels here.
I woke up. I took a quick bath. I like the sound of running water. It makes me feel, I don’t know, really calm. I think maybe it's, like, I'm just a water baby.
There's this, like, you know, deep pocket of emptiness that I think music

really fills for me. I think I write some of my best songs in the bathtub because I'm just by myself. And I’m—I get to just, like, think and self-reflect and just be, like, really present with myself.
This is cheesy but I really sometimes think people are born to do something, and I really do think that I was born to be a writer. I feel like I, like, came out the womb, fucking, with a pen, I swear to God.

And it's one of the best feelings in the world. 
I mean, my sole purpose has always been in writing to make people feel something, whether it's to, like, you know, sit in their, like, heartbreak or to feel sexy and powerful or feel really secure in love.
I may not have experienced the same thing as you.

But we've all experienced love, loss, staying up a little too late, you know, sleeping with someone you shouldn't. But for the most part, I think the reason why I'm able to relate to a lot of people is because we've all been there, you know? We've all done things we regret. We've all done things that we really love. I just want people to feel something.
You know, we've always had a very close

connection, my fans and I. But I want my fans to feel closer to me. I mean, I already feel close to them, but I'm sure there's a lot of things they don't know about me—things that I don't really talk about.
I don't necessarily think that just because you're an artist that means you’re public domain and that everybody needs to know absolutely everything about you. I don't really talk about my family. I don't really talk about a lot of my personal life, unless it's

something that I want people to know.
But Mindset is very different. It's a look into a little bit of who I am personally, you know? This is just, you know, an even deeper look at who I am and where I'm from and where I grew up and challenges that I’ve faced.
People get to know specific stories about anxiety and my depression and path of really trying to love myself more.

You know, it's really fucking hard. It's so hard. 
But, you know, I'm sharing this with you today because I'm sure that there are people out there that have experienced the same sort of childhood that I have. And, you know, I want you all to know that you can get yourself to a place that you want to be.
I wasn't

in the land of opportunity. I wasn't born in it. I had to make it. I had to make my land of opportunity.
If you can see where I come from and you can see what kind of life I lived, and if you live a very similar life, you know that your dreams are incredibly possible and that you can get to where you want to go. You just have to try

and you have to have a little bit of belief in yourself.
I hope with this audio experience you and I get closer. I hope you learn a lot more about me that you probably didn't know about, and maybe you can correlate it to why I'm such a shithead.

My name is Julia Michaels, and welcome to my Mindset.

The world has heard her music, but who is behind the lyrics? Take a deeper look into Julia Michaels. 

We've All Been There

Episode 1: Rooted in Struggle

My mom and my dad met at a bar. 

On November 13th, it was my mom's best friend's birthday. And then two years later they had me on the same day.  But they divorced when I was six.

So my mom had custody of me basically, and I would see my dad, like, every other weekend. So I didn't really see my dad much growing up.
I was born in Iowa, but was raised in California, and so we moved to Santa Clarita. And then when they got divorced, my dad moved to Palmdale. 
I'm not from some

white collar fuckin’, you know, anything
We were lucky if we had food, like—lucky, we would go to, like, outreach programs and get, like, boxes of cans.
And friends of mine would, like, hear that we didn't have food and would, like, bring food over. On days we had food, we would just eat so much of

it because we didn't have it. 
Yeah, there were times where we’d wake up and we'd have, like, maybe a packet of oatmeal and some ketchup and, like, a little imagination. 
So my mom, by the age of 24, had three kids, which is, you know, that's a lot. And when she was in her twenties developed really severe carpal tunnel. She had to have surgeries on both her hands and her hands just didn't really work the same

after that, but she was in school to do cosmetology. And then right after that, she actually enrolled in school to be a chiropractor, and then couldn't because her hands had become so weak, and the surgery didn't really help.
She worked in all kinds of jobs, honestly. She worked at, like, hotels mainly, like, doing, like, front desk management at hotels. And at one point she, like, she worked at a gas station. She worked just, you know, part-time

places so that she could just make enough money to survive.
There was a point where, like, in sixth grade my mom was working two jobs and the only time I really saw her was when she was asleep or when she was taking us to school or trying really hard to, you know, get us to dance class or get my sister to vocal class. And we lived in all different kinds of places. At one point my sister, my

mom and I were in a bedroom in someone's house. And, like, when you're that young, you don't know that that's not how everyone else lives.
I remember I was asked to do a sleepover in sixth grade with this girl. Her name was Stephanie and I went to her house. I remember it just being very clean, and her, like, having her own room, decorated the way that she liked it. And I was like, “Oh, you have a

house. You have, like, things.” I don’t know. That was, That was, like, oh, we don't live like other people. We just don't. 
But, like, my mom always, always tried to make it feel like we had more than we did. Like, she always tried to make it feel full, even though we didn't really have a lot of anything. 
If I wanted something, or

if, if I wanted to, like, go to the movies with my friends, she couldn’t afford it but she did it anyway. It’s, like, you didn’t have to do that and I didn’t have to go, but, like, she wanted me to have fun with my friends and have a childhood. 
You know, my sister didn’t need vocal lessons but my mom wanted my sister to follow her dreams and so my mom worked really hard

so she could do that.  
That’s just what my mom has always done, My mom has always been a bit of a martyr. 
Like, she really was in survival mode for a really, really long time. And I think because of that, I learned to go after what I want out of survival mode. 
You know, I think my mom was, like, a bit of a momager, like,

unintentionally. She just wanted us to do something that we love so much that she, like, pushed, like, almost, like, was trying to live vicariously through us. 
I think my mom always tried to find my thing. Like, she put me in dance. Same with acting, she, like, tried to put me in acting things, and I was like, I don't feel like I'm doing this for myself. I feel like I'm doing this for you. 
Yeah, I don't think I really found my passion until I

was, I was like, or realized it was real until I was, like, 13. Like, my, I, I started with poetry and I would write down things all the time. And I, I would write in my notebook, I would write the alphabet at the top so that I could, I could try and find rhymes that would go with each letter of the alphabet. And um, and I would just yeah, I would write about anything and everything.  
And I think writing was, like, the first thing

that I had where it felt, like, mine mostly cause my mom just didn't know what she could do with it.
The reason why I even started actually was because of my mom. My sister was doing demos around the city. And for anyone that doesn't really know what that means it’s, some songwriters will write a song for a specific artist, but none of the songwriters can sing like that specific artist. So my sister would come and sing those songs for said artist and was doing that around the city and making money. And so I was 15

and I went to one of the sessions with my mom. And my mom was always that person that would, like, try to get me to sing for people. And I was like, “I don't want to do that.” And by this time I was, like, very self-expressive. I was going through, like, a very intense emo phase and, like, a scene kid phase. So it was like, I had, like, a fucking mohawk and a fucking tutu, and I was skeleton tights and, like, beads going all the way up my arms. I was really going, going. 
And

I walk into the studio of this really wonderful woman and she's a songwriter. And my mom goes, “Julia, you should sing for her.” And I was like, “Oh, shh.”
And so, I ended up doing it. I sang a song by an artist named Juliet Simms. It was a song called “Makeup-Smeared Eyes.” And I played it very poorly on the piano. And this songwriter was like, “Do you like to write?” And I was like, “Yeah, I do.” She was like, “Well, we should do it

sometime.”
And I remember getting ready to go to the mall to meet one of my friends. Her name was Alison. And my mom gets on the freeway and I'm like, “Where are you going? The mall’s the opposite direction.” She’s like, “You're going to your first writing session.” And I was like, “But Alison’s… is at the mall.” 
And so that happened and then I think my mom moved, like, a few months later. 
My mom had to move back to Iowa. She

just wasn't making enough money and there was a point where she ended up having to live out of her car for a little bit. So I had to move in with my dad.
Yeah, my mom was just really down on her luck, you know? Again always was trying, but just never could just could never, like, catch a break. Just could never catch a fucking break.
She was always really responsible, wasn't college educated, just couldn't make enough money to support her and two

girls, you know?
I don't think my mom was ready to leave us. I really don't. But I think she really wanted to be there to, like, see all of the hard work that, like, we had put in and she had put in and all the sleepless nights and all the countless hours working, you know, and, like, hope that something would happen for us where we got to do the thing that we loved. And I think, like, the idea of her being away from us, cause it had been us for so long, was

really scary for her.  
And then when she left, I was just like, okay, I guess, like, I'm just gonna work all the time now and, like, work toward the thing that I know that she really wants for us.
When my mom moved back to Iowa, my dad was like, “You know, maybe you should think about going to college and, like, getting a job.”
My dad actually moved to

LA to be an actor. And so I think he just had this fear that I would be here and not get to do what I love. Because he moved here to do something and it, it didn't really, like, pan out in the way that he really wanted it to. 
And then I got, like a theme song on a Disney Channel show, and then he never said anything after that, after that. He’s like, “Ok, you seem like you kinda know what you’re doing, it’s alright.”

My dad always says that, like, he thought he was supposed to move to LA for his career, but he thinks that it may have been that he was supposed to move here for me, which is very sweet and probably not true.
My dad and my mom growing up would always be like, “Don't be like me.” You know? And you hear that. And you're like, “Okay,

don't be like you. And how, how do I not be like you?”
You know, my dad used to say things to me all the time. He'd be like, “Julia, what are you?” Like, “Ugh, I'm a leader, dad.” What are you not? “A follower.” “Okay. Go to school.” “Julia, what are you?” “Ugh, I'm a leader, dad.” “What are you not?” “A follower.” “Ok, do your homework.” “Julia, what are you?” “Ugh, I'm a leader,

dad.” “What are you not?” “A follower.” “Okay. Do the dishes.” Like, all the time. And he would say things to me like, “Julia, when you get older, be your own person, make your own money. So if you ever get married, you marry that person for the right reasons.” Like, he would just always say little things to me or, like, I didn't want to disappoint him, you know? And I'd be like, okay, I need to pave my way. I need to do this. How am I gonna do that? What do I like to do? And I was

like, oh, I love, I love words. Okay. Let's, like, it’s like, okay, I love songwriting. Is that even a thing? Can I even, can I even do that? And, and then I don't know, you just figure it out and then you do it but, like, it was always, like, rooted a bit in not wanting to struggle. 
I've always been really determined, like, goal oriented, loving,

passionate, a little too passionate sometimes. I think I get my passion from my mom. Like, when my mom has her mind set on something, she's all for it. Like, that's the only thing she can see. Yeah, I feel like that’s the gist - loving, hardworking.
I could call her right now and be like, “Hey.” Let’s see, let’s see if she’s awake.

Julia: Hi beautiful.


Mom: Hi beautiful.


Mom:  I love her. She is very giving. She is a, she is a wonderful human being. 


Julia: Aw thanks mom.


Mom: I am very blessed. I'm very humbled by Julia. 


Julia: Aw thanks mom.


Mom: Very true. You know, uh, just to see, you know,

being in the right place at the right time and meeting the right people. And how quickly. I’m just very excited for her.


Julia: Also, like, like, how we, how we, you know, grew up and, like, everything, like, the odds were so against us, to even – 


Mom: Against, against, against, against. You know, it’s funny, it’s funny because you know, there’s been a lot of sacrifices on, on both ends and, you know, to get Julia where she’s at and

I, I would do it all over again.


Julia: Thanks mom.


Mom: You’re welcome, I love you. 


Julia: I love you too. Very much. 


She lives in Nashville now so I don't get to see her very often. So when I'm with her, I, I get upset when she has to go to work. I’m like, “But I'm here and I want to be with you.” I, like, revert to full, like, seven, seven years old.

It's so funny.
You know, my mom still wants to, like, cuddle me and watch movies with me. And, and, you know, she says, let me make you dinner. You know, she's just very warm. Just always has been, like, that's probably my favorite part of my mom. She's just always been incredibly nurturing and fun. Like, still as a 27 year old woman, my mom will come visit me and be like, “Can we nuggle

tonight?” And it wasn't until, four years ago I actually had made enough money that I bought her a house in Nashville.
She now lives close to my sister and my sister's daughter. And she gets to be a grandma and gets to see her weekly. And, you know, gets to just, like, be fucking happy and that's all I've ever wanted for my mom, you know?

Despite having no money for even food some days, Julia's mother sacrificed a lot for her daughter, which got her to where she was today.  Julia recounts stories from her childhood and how they got through it together.

Rooted in Struggle

I've always been a very non-confident, very insecure, very internal person. I liked being in my room. I liked playing the piano. I just liked being by myself.
We lived in this lower sort of income apartment complex, and I would just sort of, like, walk around in the complex. Or, like, we lived really close to, like, a,

like, a train track, and so I would go and, like, sit in the grass by the train track and, like, wait for the trains. 
Episode two: Loner.
I think I just had a very bizarre childhood. I spent most of it trying to be an adult and, like, trying to be strong for a lot of people, I think, and

because my childhood was just so intense, I felt more comfort being alone.
My dad would work. My mom had to move back to Iowa. My sister and I weren't, like, super close so I didn't really have anybody.
I always felt like the black sheep of the family. When I was a bit younger, I think my mom had just sort of put a lot of her eggs in, in my sister's basket and then I

think, when you're a kid, you think that that means that they love your sibling more, then you start, just sort of, like, being a little bit more internal or, like, start doing things to make yourself feel like you exist.
My sister was very social. Always had friends. My sister was very preppy, like, could’ve been

an ad campaign for Hollister. All of her friends were like that, and I just was not like that at all. That was, like, you know, right around the time of my, like, emo-ish phase. I like to think that we're like the Jessica Simpson and the Ashley Simpson. Ashley's, like, just, like, really dark and, like, intense. And Jessica’s, like, this very beautiful girl that can sing really amazing and was, like, the

star, you know? 
Because of that, you know, I, I, uh… I didn't really feel like I, like, had much of anybody and I just, I think music has always been the thing that felt really close to me.
So I went to this homeschooling program. I didn't have a teacher at home. I just had a teacher at the school. But you weren't there all the time. You were given packets. A lot of the work was

reliant on me. I had to finish it, I had to teach myself. For the most part, you know, I'm in my room, reading the textbooks, writing down the packets… 
I had to teach myself a lot of things, but I loved it, like, I loved figuring things out. I think it really taught me to be self-sufficient. 
I liked that I could just do what I wanted. I

would make coffee in the morning. I would make breakfast for my dad and I. I would maybe watch something. I used to really love crime shows—I was obsessed with CSI. Got really into, um, French films. And then I would just—I would listen to music and then do my schoolwork. 
I definitely think there's a, a correlation with being a

homebody and my self-awareness. You spend a lot of time alone, so you spend a lot of time thinking. And when you spend a lot of time thinking, I think it, like, makes you just really aware of your surroundings and who you are and the kind of person you want to be, and I think that in turn makes you emotionally intelligent. Because then you start seeing, like, who you are and then seeing people around you be different and you're like, ‘Oh, why are you different?

Like, why are you different from me, emotionally?’ 
I always just felt really sort of misunderstood. Because of that, I just started writing. Like, writing writing when I was 16, basically ever since I had had that encounter with the songwriter.
I liked problem solving and, and that's really what songwriting is. It's the place where I feel

like I can do and say anything I want to. Things that I wouldn't normally say in my everyday life, Yeah. Just, like, the place where I feel really… just alive. 
I think I also just started dressing very differently. 
I, like, went through, like, a bit of a gothic phase.

Don't recommend it. I think I had gotten into, like, you know, more like, sort, sort of, like, emo shit, like Saosin. And then I got into, like, death metal, like, fucking Cradle of Filth. That music to me just, like, symbolized, like, rebellion and recklessness, and I just, I wanted to, like, live vicariously through that. I loved the way that they looked. They were just so, like, dark and, like,

mysterious and you just had no idea what was going on. I think I loved the chaos of it all.
I think because I am very introverted, I have the tendency to feel a bit caged within myself and, like, every once in a while, I just want to have a moment of recklessness.
I had a friend. We never really

we were, where we would just, like, rip up our clothes and we’d draw all over our clothes and we had, like, scene kid extensions and safety pins—just being, like, way more self-expressive, even if I was a bit quiet. You know, that was, like, my way of feeling loud.
My sister had a boyfriend, and I remember going to Warped Tour with them for my first time and Killswitch was performing. And they decided that

year to do the Wall of Death, which, for anybody that doesn't know what that is, they make everybody divide like the fucking Red Sea, and then when he cues ‘em, they all run into each other and just, like, mob the shit out of each other. But you're, like, in it and it's so exciting and so my sister's ex at the time looked at these two huge people, and at this point I'm, like, five feet.
“Pick her up.”

They literally picked me up and threw me over the Wall of Death so I'm, like, literally crowd surfing over all of these people that are just, like, annihilating everybody. And then the security guard, like, pulled me over the gate. And I remember it being, like, so terrifying but also very extremely thrilling.
Right around 16 was when I really found, like, Fiona Apple and, like, Regina Spektor

and Ani and Patty Griffin, and a lot of just really amazing singer-songwriters that were rebellious in their own right. They're just fearless and unapologetically them. They don't give a shit, and I think that's so sexy. 
Especially as a woman, you know, we're, we’re taught what to say and what to wear and how to think and how to be, and you're

trying too hard or you're not trying enough or you're not—and it's just refreshing to hear women just be like, “Fuck you. I'm gonna write the way that I want to write in the, in the style that I want to write it in. And there's nothing you can say to me.”
They had that rebellion, but they had it in the form of words. I think that was, like, another

reason why I got really into songwriting. Cause I was like, ‘Oh, you can be... you can say exactly what you want in the way that you want to and be completely unapologetic and completely yourself and nobody's gonna say shit because this is you and, like, even if they do, who gives a fuck?’
And I'm like, ‘That's hot. That's really fucking hot.’
That felt free, to me. This is, like, exactly what I

Growing up, Julia spent most of her life alone.  She doesn't see this as a bad thing - if anything, being alone and on her own is what brought her to where she is today. 

Loner

There's this cassette that my dad has of my grandparents and my tía singing at the table. There's no instruments. They're just singing acapella and my tía is singing in English, but my grandpa's singing in Spanish. And so is my grandma. They both passed away before I could really meet them. 
When I listened to it for the first time I had these, like,

wild, involuntary tears. They were just there and they were just flowing. It wasn't just, like, one sweet tear. It was just, like, like, a flood of tears. Yeah. Just, like, so, so beautiful. And so special.
Episode three: God I Love Music. 
My tía said that I was, I was writing songs at seven.

She would be like, “What are you writing?” I'd be like “Songs.” You know, but I don't remember that. 
I remember getting two CDs one Christmas. I must've been about maybe eight. I got Usher and I got Train. I loved “Meet Virginia.” I, that every song on that album was, like, just so miraculous. And even, like, knowing that as a child, I was like, the songwriting was, like, just so

good. Even to this day, I'm like, ‘That's some fucking incredible songwriting,’ were it's like, you know, just simple things, like, “She smokes a pack a day.” You know? But, like, so ridiculous and, like, “Drops of Jupiter” is, like, one of the best songs still, to me, of all time.
I've always appreciated songwriting. I just don't think I realized how much I appreciated it until I got older. 
I think it really hit me with Juliet Simms

when I was like 13, 14. You're singing exactly what I feel, you know what I'm feeling, but it wasn't until I was in my singer songwriter Americana female phase where I was like, ‘Oh, these are, like, very strong, brave, beautiful, independent, unapologetic women. This is, like, exactly what I want to be.’
Writing has been the place

where I could sing what I was feeling. Music was the place that I felt most powerful. And it was the place where I really had, I had and I knew my voice. I've always felt that way with music. 
And that's honestly, that's probably why I still feel so excited when I write something and that's just been my entire life, just writing and writing and writing and writing and waking up and thinking about

songs and dreaming about songs. And it sounds really, like, you would think it, it would sound really monotonous, but it's not. And I just, I, I love it so much, and I, I feel so alive when I make it. 
I can't imagine what my life would be like without music. 
I don't, I feel like I would be a, a shell of a human. 
I was about

12 when I got a piano. Again, my mom always did anything and everything she could to make our dreams feel tangible. And that piano was the start of that for me. 
I was on my way to school one day and there was this baby grand Kimball on the street for sale in the neighborhood that we lived in. And this was when we lived in, um,

the bedroom in a friend's house. And my mom pulled over, and I was like, “What are you doing?” She got out of the car and talked to the person and, “I don't have the money right now, but, um, I'll give you my wedding ring.” Which, by this point, they were divorced and, um, she was like, “Here, just take this as collateral. We'll be back.” Got a truck and we never went back. Couldn't afford it. But sorry, if you are

listening and you are that person. It was a beautiful piano.
And then I just started learning sort of basic chords, just things that sounded pretty. I would just play until I found things that felt nice together and then would just put down my poems to the music.
It really symbolized the start of my career. It was the thing that I spent the most time on and the most time with,

writing and playing and honing. I even got, I even got tendonitis from playing so much because I was playing octaves and my hands were hurting so much that I had to wear braces on both of my hands for three weeks cause I was playing it so often, but, yeah, always loved that piano. I always held it very dear to my heart. I miss it. 
Honestly, I

had that Kimball up until I was 20. I stored it in a boyfriend’s garage. My ex-boyfriend's family were like, “You need to get this out of here.” And I couldn't afford a storage unit to put it. It was like the only thing I had that my mom had, like, really finagled. I had to call, like, a piano company and have them take it. I think they paid me, like, a hundred bucks

to take it. And I remember, like, sobbing on the asphalt when they took it. 
And then, fun fact: I met Keith Urban and we just bonded really quickly. But I was telling him that there was this house that I really liked in Topanga Canyon, but it was really far, and it was kind of expensive and I didn't know if I could afford it. And he was basically like, “You know, there's always a way. And if, like, that's

where your heart is, you'll figure it out.” And I ended up not buying that house, but a house that I ended up loving more. I bought it. And then three days later I left for tour. It was, like, one of my first tours. I was on tour with Niall Horan. And then when I came home, I didn't have any furniture in the house yet. But when I came home, the only thing that was in there was this beautiful, upright Steinway piano. And Keith had actually bought it for me.

Was just a really incredible moment. It was truly the only thing in my house. And there was this big red bow on it, but I was really grateful and it's still in my house. I still play it all the time. And it's gonna come with me to my next house. That's gonna be in my life forever. And I don't think he realizes, like, how special that piano is to me.
I think my creative

process is ever changing. I used to write things down in my notes, but now I feel like if I do that, then I come to prepare it and then I forget to listen. I don't even have a notebook. I don't write anything down. And so I just don't go in with any, like, preconceived ideas. I just go in and I talk and I listen and hope that some weird stroke of genius will hit everybody at the same

time. 
And, we'll make something really special. But it changes all the time.  I think right around when I started doing Inner Monologue, um, Part 1 and 2 was when I really started freestyling stuff on the microphone, like, a song called “Into You” on one of my records was fully freestyled. Then I actually started with a song that I did with Clean Bandit. It was a song called “I Miss You.” He has the entire take from

when I, like, conceived the, the idea on the mic in the booth to when I finished it. And it was, like, all of 45 minutes. And I was like, “Okay, I need to go. This is a lot for me.” And then he put it out, like, three months later, but I think I was, like, so in my head that I just let my, like, stream of conscious takeover and sometimes I feel like, you know, a lot of really good songs come that way, cause you're not overthinking it. And you're not trying to make it, like, this algorithm or, like, this, you know, it has to start on the one or start on this. And you're

just, like, really just singing your feelings. 
I think if you are listening to this and you're a songwriter and you’ve never really tried this sort of freestyle-ish technique, I think you really just have to sort of dare to suck. Go in the booth and it's not like you have to sing something right away. You can sit in the chords and figure out what that feeling feels like to you, and what it sounds like to you and just close your eyes for a second and just, like,

mumble to yourself what it could be. I like to keep the chords really bare and then just, you know, stream of conscious, like, what's on your mind, what's on your heart and just, you know, piece it together bit by bit until you feel like you have something that you're ready to sing. And you can keep it internal. You can keep it in, in until you're ready. Just express it in a way that you feel like is going to be, you know, sort of put together, but you can also just, like, you know, again, dare to suck,

just, like, sing shit down that you, cause you just never know what's gonna come. You never know what to expect. You know, you just have to dare to suck. 
Sessions are so different. You know, they’re so different all the time. And you really never know what you’re gonna get. Um, sometimes I'll go in with an artist and they'll be really involved. They’ll, like, talk to you and they'll be, like, super excited. And then the minute the music comes on, they're on their phone. They're not paying attention to anything and you'll be, like,

getting into it. And you're like, “Do you like this?” And then they'll sort of pause and be like, “What?” “Like, do you like this?” And be like, “Oh yeah.” And then you just hear the… you’re like, ‘Okay. So you actually don't care.’ 
Sometimes an artist will come in and they'll have a lot of ideas, but they'll have a lot of bad ideas. And so you spend, like, a lot of time doing damage control and then you end up with, like, a mildly good song, because you can only say, say no to

so many ideas. 
Sometimes an artist will come in and they'll have amazing ideas. And, you know, I'll just sort of sit back and be like, “Okay, maybe change this, put this here. Um, go up on this melody” that I'm like, why am I here? Like, I don't, I don't know why you want to give me a percentage to just tell you, like, to move things around a little bit. Like, this doesn't make any sense.
And then there's other people where they'll come in and they'll talk to you

in lyrics where you're like, ‘Oh, that's a song. Oh, that's a line in the song.’ And it's, like, sometimes I even prefer that because it's so like, it's not contrived and it's not trying, you know, like, I just think conversations are the best songs and, like, if you can have a conversation, you can have that as the song. It's, like, so many people think they need to do these, like, big images or these big metaphors. And, you know, sometimes people will be like, ‘How

do I say this without saying this?’ I'm like, ‘But why can't you say that? Like, you can say that.’ We should say that because that's gonna be the thing where everyone's like, “Oh yeah. Like, why, why didn't I, oh yeah. I'm going through that too. Like, exactly that right now.’ And it's all different, but it's all really exciting. There's nothing to me like the feeling that I get when I've written something that feels really special or collaborated with, you know, everybody in the room. It

really is the greatest feeling. You're coming up with, like, something out of nothing, you know, you're starting it with, you know, a talk with a friend and then all of a sudden that's a song. It really is, like, just the most exciting, beautiful feeling in the world. 
As a songwriter, you write just about every day. Sometimes you do doubles, very rarely do you do triples. If you do, your

mind is literally scrambled eggs by the end of it. And you're doing this almost every day, basically every day. And you figure there's 365 days in a year, you know, give or take a few days. You're probably writing 300 and, you know, 20 of those days. If you don't take off, you know, a lot of time, which when you're in the grind and you want to, like, make something of yourself, you don't take

off a lot of time. In the span of my songwriting career, I've probably written, you know, thousands of songs and of those thousands, you know, maybe 500, potentially, will get cut. And of those 500, maybe 200 will be mildly successful. And of those 200, maybe 40 will be really successful. And then maybe, like, five will be, like, really successful. You know?

I'll be in the studio and I'll look around at everybody and I'm like, “Guys. This is our job. Like you're literally barefoot. You're just over here eating snacks and just hoping that, like, something is gonna be magical and, like, everybody in the world is gonna hear it. This is so crazy. We're just making music for fucking fun.” 
I think it's really easy to forget that and, like, take it for granted.

We'll finish a song, and I'm just like, “God, I love music. Like, God, It's so cool.”

Julia has always had a deep appreciation for songwriting.  Hear about Julia's songwriting process and her advice for fellow songwriters.

God I Love Music

I definitely used to think that love was drama and chaos and toxicity. It's very rare when you see a healthy depiction of love, you know, I can’t remember if I was, like, a kid, but I remember watching, like, you know, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, where they're trying to kill each other. And then all of a sudden they're, like, making out. “Love The Way You Lie.” The house is, like, on fire and Megan Fox's, like, a mess they're, like, angry and, like, hitting each

other, but then they're, like, super in love. 
Then you grow up and you're like, ‘Oh, this isn't love. This is, like, not anything that it's supposed to be.’ Like, ‘Oh, okay. Let me, like, relearn what it's supposed to be.’
Episode four: Learning Through Love.
My parents got divorced when I was really young, so I never really had, like, a real,

a real idea of what love was. My dad really loved women, like, too much, which was a big reason why they got divorced. When you grow up with that as your first role model and how men are supposed to treat women, you're just like, ‘Oh, okay. Like, I know what I'm in for.’ And it really, like, messes with you as you get older, 
I wasn't

really, like, attracted to anybody until I was 18. And the first person that I fell for was a barista at a coffee shop. He was the first person that I'd ever been with. He was very lovely. He was very funny. Just very kind. That was, like, the thing I liked most about him, you know, that he just had a really big heart. He was also very nerdy,

glasses, like, full head of brown hair, really lanky and tall and, like, sort of goofy. And, um, dated for two years, we got engaged. I had the ring on my finger and everything. I think we were engaged for, like, six months.
I had come home from a session and he was there and, I don't know, it was just, like, a moment. I looked at him where I was just sort of, like, I don't know if this is what

I want. I just don't. I feel like if I'm gonna marry someone, I should know, hands down, you are my person. I should know this. And I, I just, yeah, I just didn't feel it. And then I was like, “I love you, but I, I'm, I'm 20. I have so much that I want to do before I do this. And I will regret not doing this if I don't. I think I need to, like, live a little bit more life

experience before I do this.”
I took a lot of my early twenties just to do that, just to really, like, figure out who I was and who I am and what I wanted. And then, and then I did. It was great. I think he's married now and happy. So I'm happy for him.
I was in a, a, a, a very,

very toxic relationship with this producer. He was, like, right after my engagement. I felt very drawn to him. There was this, you know, chaotic cloud above us. It was very much, the “Love The Way You Lie,” except for not physical. It was, like, very mental, you know, but I never really, like, laughed with him. I never felt, like, happy around him and that I should have

known that. 
He just was, like, very insecure and I think he would take it out on me a lot. For instance, I had my first number one on Billboard. It was “Sorry.” Biggest thing to happen in my career. It's what, like, every songwriter strives for, dreams of. We didn't think it was gonna happen because “Hello,” Adele had the number one spot for weeks and we were like, “Well,

Julia looks into her past romantic relationships - the good and the bad - and how she was able to come out on the other side from an extremely toxic, high-profile relationship. 

Julia Michaels

We've All Been There

Rooted in Struggle

Loner

God I Love Music

Learning Through Love

She's a B*tch but She Pays Rent

Love Your Body

Women Are F*cking Awesome

You've Got This

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Julia x Mindset

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