Charli XCX built a career by living online long before most pop stars knew how. Now, she’s doing something that might be even more surprising – logging off.
Fresh off the cultural earthquake that was Brat, the singer revealed she’s stepping away from social media after struggling with anxiety and mental health challenges behind the scenes.
“I have actually been a lot more offline,” Charli said in a new Rolling Stone interview. “I don’t really look as much anymore. It’s just better for my brain.”
For fans used to seeing Charli at the center of every meme, trend and internet debate, the admission comes as a shock. But the singer says the nonstop chatter eventually became too much.
“The discourse is loud, and sometimes that can be very overwhelming,” she explained.
While Brat delivered chart success, Grammy wins and a pop-culture takeover, Charli admits the experience came with a hidden cost.
“I know people probably won’t believe me, because I am inherently, at least in the past, a very online artist,” she said.
“But I recently have been really struggling with my mental health to the point where, if I’m being real, I’m in the worst place mentally that I’ve been in my life.”
“It got to a place where my anxiety was physically affecting me, and I can’t actually proceed in life like that.”
These days, Charli is swapping endless scrolling for real-world connections, spending more time with husband George Daniel and preparing for her next album, Music, Fashion, Film.
One thing fans should not expect? A Brat sequel.
“I knew when I was making it that I was never going to make that record again,” she said. “It’s not creatively rewarding for me to make the same thing twice.”
And if there’s one message Charli is carrying into this new era, it’s simple: “I want to live my life exactly the way that I want to live it, because I don’t get a redo.”
