Grace VanderWaal Grows Up: With New Music and ‘Megalopolis’ Role, the ‘America’s Got Talent’ Winner Is Coming Into Her Own — Even if It Makes ‘People Really Uncomfortable’
variety.comEllise Shafer Eight years after Grace VanderWaal won “America’s Got Talent,” people still see her as the bashful 12-year-old girl from Kansas who floored everyone with her ukulele-playing and contemplative songs. “I had the weirdest experience recently,” VanderWaal, now 20, tells Variety over Zoom from L.A., the blunt bangs of her tween years replaced by a sleek platinum bob.
She recounts how, on a night out with friends, she crossed paths with a woman coming out of the bathroom. “She was like, ‘You’re a woman!
You’re a grown-up!’” VanderWaal says, mimicking the tipsy fan’s shock. “I was like literally gentle-parenting her through this, but she wouldn’t get over it.
She couldn’t handle it.” Lately, VanderWaal has been running into that kind of reaction — fans who can’t stop seeing her as a symbol of the purity and innocence of youth — a lot, even though she’s long since shed the ukulele and her pixie-girl image. “I’ve been so afraid to shatter that dream for people,” she says. “But like, I want you to ask yourself, why do you feel personally affected?
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