“Most 14-year-olds aren’t in a room with adults being like, ‘So, what’s your brand?’”

Rodrigo wasn’t sure what her brand was. She liked singing. But there was an established trajectory for Disney stars who became singers: Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez. And she wasn’t sure she fit that mold. Then, at 15, she was cast in another Disney production: High School Musical: The Musical—The Series. Socially, the show seems to have been a revelation. Rodrigo became part of a large, тιԍнт-knit cast, whom she describes on Instagram as “FAMILY!” It also created her first songwriting break. In episode four, the script called for Nini to perform a song that she’s written. Meanwhile, the real Rodrigo had mustered the courage to post one of her own original songs to Instagram, a melancholy piece called “I Am More.” She describes it as “this very raw take” on a frustration she was feeling with the way people perceived her. On Instagram, she looked pretty and carefree, but that wasn’t the way she felt all the time. That’s the problem with social media: “It’s hard to be something that is not one-dimensional on a medium that is inherently one-dimensional, you know?” The song’s hook is “I am more than I could ever show / I am more than the girl you think you know.”

High School Musical: The Musical—The Series producers sent “I Am More” to Disney’s music team. Rodrigo says, “They were like, ‘We want Olivia’s character’s song to sound like the song that Olivia wrote.’ ” Eventually, someone asked, “Why don’t we just have Olivia write the song herself?” Which is how she ended up writing and performing “All I Want” for Disney at the age of 16. The song became a hit with fans, and also caught the attention of Sam Riback, the head of A&R at Interscope—part of the same company that includes Geffen Records, now her record label. He was impressed with Rodrigo’s performance, he recalls: “It seemed like second nature to her. She knew how to accentuate some of the lines and little moments to turn it into as powerful a song as it could be.” He became even more intrigued when Rodrigo told him about her musical influences. “She said one of her favorite artists was Gracie Abrams”—the 21-year-old daughter of the director J. J. Abrams, who shares her music online. “Gracie’s in her infancy!” Then came her mother’s ’90s rock. “She started referencing Fiona Apple, the Smashing Pumpkins. She liked the Taylor Swifts and all that, but you could tell there was a left-of-center view to the way she was approaching pop music.”

After we’ve been talking for a while, I ask Rodrigo if I can see her Salt Lake City duplex. “Hell, yeah,” she says. Picking up her laptop, she gives me a tour of the furnishings she and her mother bought for the apartment, including an IKEA couch and a framed Frida Kahlo portrait (“I’m obsessed with Frida Kahlo,” Rodrigo says). The kitchen is littered with balloons and flowers—gifts celebrating the success of “Drivers License.” She opens the door to what looks like a college dorm room: unmade bed, clothes strewn on the floor. “This is my bedroom songwriting oasis,” Rodrigo says. On one wall, she’s created a little shrine, taping up pictures of singer-songwriters she admires: Taylor Swift, Gwen Stefani, Alanis Morissette, and, of course, Gracie Abrams. There’s a guitar, an electric keyboard, and a whiteboard covered with lists related to an upcoming album. “It’s songs that I love and want to reference, and songs that I’ve written that I want to clean up,” Rodrigo says. I catch a glimpse of the word SOUR in bubble letters.

Rodrigo initially worried that the success of “Drivers License” would become a problem. “I thought I was going to be really in my head, like, ‘I’m never going to write a song as good as that again,’ ” she says. But instead, the opposite has happened: “This song has given me a lot of confidence in my voice.” At the risk of triggering stressful memories, I bring up the brand question. Has she gotten any closer to figuring hers out? The answer is yes—sort of. “I think songwriting has really helped me home in on what I like about myself and my art,” she says. It has something to do with being honest and vulnerable and not contrived. “I just want to be effortless, I guess,” she goes on. “Whether it’s in my fashion or my songs or my social media, I want to just be like, ‘Yo, this is me. And I’m sometimes weird as ҒUCҜ, and I’m sometimes polished and put together.’ ” She adds, “I think that’s the anтιтhesis of a brand.” But if history is any indication, a lot of people can relate.