Part-time jobs and clubbing: Inside Chappell Roan’s life before her fame

She had almost as many part-time jobs as a UK uni student

3 months ago

It’s no secret that Chappell Roan is a little unsettled by her newfound fame.

Chappell Roan posted two TikToks this week complaining about how fans have treated her since she’s become famous. She ranted that her fans’ “creepy behaviour” included stalking her family and shouting at her when she refused to speak to them in the street. In July, Chappell Roan lamented that her newfound fame has changed her life.

Chappell Roan has risen to fame phenomenally (or should I say, femininomenonally?) fast. A year ago, she was a relatively niche indie artist. Last week, her 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess reached number one in the UK.

So, what was her life like before she was a Super Graphic Ultra Modern pop girlie? What was Chappell Roan doing before she was performing in stadiums with Olivia Rodrigo that was preferable?

She actually grew up in a trailer park

Chappell Roan was born on 19th February 1998, making her 26 and a Pisces. Her real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz. “Chappell” was her grandfather’s surname. “Roan” is a reference to his favourite song The Strawberry Roan by Curley Fletcher.

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A post shared by ･ﾟ: *✧ Chappell Roan ✧*:･ﾟ (@chappellroan)

Her mother is a vet and her dad is her nurse. She grew up with three younger siblings in a trailer park in a small town called Willard in Missouri. Roan revealed to Variety that she had to go to church three times a week and her childhood was “really depressed”. Her conservative Christian upbringing and eventual move away from it inspired the lyrics of Pink Pony Club.

She grew up listening to Lady Gaga and watching Hannah Montana. She began uploading covers to YouTube and writing songs in her teens.

In 2015, Roan was signed by Atlantic Records (yup, that’s the one Taylor Swift’s at). Her first EP, School Nights, came out two years later. It’s very angsty, very synthy, and very 2017. She told Variety in 2023 that she “hated all that music” from her first EP. Can’t say I blame her.

While working on these songs, Roan split her time between New York, Los Angeles, and her parents’ house in Springfield, Missouri. She properly moved to LA in 2018, when she was 20.

She’s a guinea pig girl

Roan has owned several guinea pigs. She had one when she was ten, then adopted more in 2018 from the Los Angeles Guinea Pig Rescue animal shelter. The four extremely cute guinea pigs in the Love Me Anyway lyric video were called Sonic, Honeydew, Gogo and Nadine and kept her company during lockdown.

It’s no secret that Chappell Roan is a little unsettled by her newfound celebrity status.

The guinea pig is the real artist behind Love Me Anyway
(Image via YouTube)

She has worked plenty of part-time jobs like the rest of us

Her much-campier songs Love Me Anyway, Pink Pony Club, and California came out in 2020. However, they weren’t instant successes. Atlantic Records dropped her and her boyfriend of four years dumped her in the same week in August 2020. How rude is that?

Roan returned to Missouri and worked as a barista in a drive-through coffee shop. This adds a whole new meaning to the song Coffee. She then moved back to LA to work on more of the songs that would form The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess. She had many, many part-time jobs while her career was taking off. She worked at a doughnut shop, as a nanny for a wealthy family, and as a production runner on an HBO show.

She’s really crafty

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A post shared by BRICKS (@bricks_magazine)

Roan revealed on Reddit in 2022 that she loves handicrafts. “I love to bedazzle, sew, needle felt, color, do makeup and hair, thrift af.” Roan crafted some of her own outfits, including the hot pink biker outfit on the cover of Femininomenon.

She loved a night out

The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess is perfect for pre-party playlists, so it’s not surprising that Roan was known for going out.

Not long after moving to Los Angeles, she visited a famous gay bar called The Abbey in West Hollywood. The experience inspired her song Pink Pony Club. Roan told Headliner Magazine, “All of a sudden I realised I could truly be any way I wanted to be, and no one would bat an eye. It was so different from home where I always had such a hard time being myself and felt like I’d be judged for being different or being creative.”

Roan’s song lyrics and interviews suggest that she used to really go for it on nights out. She revealed on The Comment Section with Drew Afualo in July that her newfound fame stopped her from going out in the way she used to. She missed “doing drugs in public” “being a f*cking freak at the bar” “being in a Forever 21 and not being judged” and “frolicking”.