You may have heard her hit, ‘Messy’, or perhaps her song ‘Don’t Hate Me’, which blew up on TikTok when she hinted its release in 2023. The track received… mixed reviews, to say the least. The song, which received 3.1 million total views on the original video, shot Lola Young into the spotlight. It’s an uncomfortable, raw, confrontational sound. “You said that I’m really f**cking boring / Well, that’s rich, coming from you.”
Over the past few years, her fame has only grown. She’s released 3 albums, including ‘My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely’, the album featuring ‘Don’t Hate Me’. Her debut album established her unapologetic style in lyricism, and her raw vocal sound. “This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway” (2024), was heavily influenced by sub-par ex-boyfriends (see: ‘Big Brown Eyes’). Her third and most-recent studio album, “I’m Only F**king Myself” (2025), was a flip inward, exploring self-hatred, sexuality, mental health and addiction, and the cons of sudden fame.
As ‘Don’t Hate Me’ and ‘Messy’ took over the internet, Lola became the target of a massive social media pile-on. People on social media, primarily TikTok, labeled her as an ‘industry plant’, or a ‘nepo baby’, due to very distant family connections, which seems to be a common accusation against upcoming female artists. Users also critiqued her unique, raw vocal delivery. They called her natural, autotune-free vocal style ‘grating’, ‘abrasive’, and ‘forced’. British Vogue noted that Lola Young was “woman’d”, or subjected to a coordinated, vibes-based public pile-on where valid critiques of the music industry’s structural flaws devolved into personal, misogynistic, cruel and bitter criticism against a rising female artist.
Throughout her career, Lola Young has been transparent and candid with her pre-existing mental health struggles. She had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and ADHD at age 17. Her first album, she has previously stated, is a direct reference to her struggles with these conditions. To cope with the sudden fame she received, Lola developed a cocaine addiction, which she also mentions several times in her songs (‘Not Like That Anymore’, ‘d£aler’). While recovering from her addiction and also dealing with her conditions, Lola reached a breaking point in September of 2025 and collapsed onstage mid-performance at the All Things Go Festival in New York. The incident forced her to cancel the rest of her tour and step out of the spotlight entirely. She spent months in a treatment facility, reciting in an interview with Rolling Stone that she didn’t know what else to do – “What else was I going to do, die? That was the reality of where my addiction was heading.”
Since her recovery, Lola has redeemed herself in unimaginable ways. She completed her treatment and joined Alcoholics Anonymous and made a beautiful return to the music world at the 2026 Grammy Awards. She received the award for Best Pop Solo Performance, a nomination for Best New Artist, and a jaw-dropping five nominations at the 2026 BRIT awards. By being open and transparent with her fans, and not hiding her flaws, she’s breaking down walls in an industry that has previously demanded silence in exchange for success.
“You have to be kind to yourself. You have to always remember that you are not alone. You are not ever, ever alone.” – Lola Young
SAMHSA’s National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP
988 – Mental Health Emergency Hotline
Edited and reviewed by Zoe Carter
