Stop Givin’ Me The Side Eye

A song about being judged, stared at, underestimated, and deciding not to make yourself smaller.

There’s a particular kind of look people give you when they think they’ve got you figured out.

I’ve seen it in school hallways, venues, shops, parties, dressing rooms, and pretty much anywhere someone decides you’re too much of one thing and not enough of another. Too loud, too young, too mixed, too confident, too emotional, too dressed up, too honest, too different from whatever version of you they expected.

Stop Givin’ Me The Side Eye came from being tired of noticing those looks and letting them change the way I moved through the room.

The song is fun on purpose. I didn’t want it to sound wounded, even though the feeling underneath it is real. I wanted it to feel like catching somebody staring and deciding to enjoy yourself even more. Sometimes confidence isn’t a big inspirational speech. Sometimes it’s just refusing to let a stranger’s silent judgment become the most important thing happening.

I think a lot of people know that feeling — walking into a space and immediately becoming aware of how you’re being read. This song is my way of saying: let them look. You don’t have to shrink just because somebody else doesn’t know what to do with you.