Baby Queen says she wants her songwriting to be 'uncomfortably honest.' So far, so good.

• Baby Queen is a rising singer-songwriter, armed with biting wit and unbridled emotional honesty.
• She opened up to Insider about her reckless path to fame, dating life, and most personal lyrics.
• She also explained the inspiration behind her newest single, "Dover Beach," released on Wednesday.

Bella Latham claims she doesn't really believe in astrology - but also said she's "a Leo to a T, which is basically like, I'm an arrogant piece of s---."

"We're actually really nice people. We just like attention," she recently explained through her computer screen, draped in a red-and-white letterman jacket with "BQ" emblazoned on the front.

"It's like, I will buy everyone at this entire bar a shot tonight and be broke for the rest of the month, just so that you can have a good night," she grinned. "But you have to compliment me, too."

Maybe it's because she's a Leo, or maybe it's because she's an artist, but self-mythologizing seems to come as naturally to Latham as breathing. She talks of planning different "eras" like a seasoned pop star, steeped in the public eye. She calls herself "a walking Pinterest mood board."

She even selected her stage name, Baby Queen, because it fit an abstract, "lilac-purple" image in her brain.

"It's funny because, obviously, Baby Queen is me, but I'll refer to Baby Queen as an alter-ego, like as a joke around friends," she told Insider. "I'll be like, 'Oh my god, that was so Baby Queen of me.'"

Creating and nurturing a precious self-image can be an act of rebellion, particularly for women whose insecurities have been seemingly encouraged and commodified throughout history. It can certainly be a source of comfort in an increasingly flattened, FaceTuned world.

During an hour-long conversation with Latham, however, it also occurred to me that it can be quite scary. She used the phrase "Do you know what I mean?" a total of 23 times. She has a habit of pausing mid-sentence and backtracking, selecting her new words with vigorous precision.

Latham is determined to tell her story - to be "uncomfortably honest" as she puts it - to as many people as possible. But that comes with the danger of meeting the wrong audience.

When you have a clear idea of how you'd like to be perceived, how much would it hurt to be misunderstood?

Latham was born and raised in South Africa, though it didn't take long for her to envision a different destiny

"I just decided at the age of 12 - after discovering Taylor Swift, and the 'Love Story' music video - that I was like, 'This is what I'm doing,'" she said, glowing with the casual modesty of someone who just knew, somehow, that it would all work out.

Latham moved to London when she was 18 against her parents' wishes - and probably her own better judgment.

"I had a very distorted and warped vision of what the music industry is, and what it means to leave home," she explained. "As one does, you see it in this golden hazy vision, and it's just nothing like how you imagined."

"I thought I was going to come here, walk off the airplane with my demo CDs, and the head of Universal was going to whisk me away."

Instead, Latham spent her first three years as a Londoner couch-surfing and sleeping on friends' floors. At one point, she lived with her ex in a riverboat on Regent's Canal. ("In the winter, obviously the river freezes over and it becomes ice. Then the bedsheets would ice over. So intense.") She partied hard and dyed her hair. She received "the most horrendous tattoos" in a questionable hotel room.

"One says 'milk' and the other says 'metal,'" she told me, rolling her eyes. "I've got to get them taken off. I literally can't tell you what they mean."

Latham finally managed to land a job at a famous London-based record store, Rough Trade, in 2019. Not long after that, she was offered a record deal.

Latham's songwriting is witty and tender, wrapping shrewd observations in timeless pop-rock arrangements

In a very modern twist, Latham signed her contract with Polydor Records over Zoom.

"I was literally sat at my aunt and uncle's kitchen table here in London. So my whole career has obviously been like this," she said.

Unlike many musicians, Latham didn't need to adapt her career to self-isolation thanks to the pandemic. She built the so-called Baby Kingdom in this hellscape with endearing social-media activity, a steady stream of single releases, music videos to match - and, most importantly, a fearless lyrical talent that transcends the need for traditional career milestones.

Latham writes about 21st-century voids and all the ways she's tried to fill them: flexing on Instagram, going to parties, going home when the parties suck, self-medicating, and taking actual medication.

She said her most personal lyrics belong to a song that hasn't come out yet ("It's called 'I'm a Mess,' which I'm not supposed to say, but I've said it now"), although "These Drugs" is a close second.

The song exposes the self-destructive cycle Latham was caught in before seeking professional help, acting as a sort of prelude to "Medicine," an ode to the life-saving pros and numbing cons of anti-depressants.

"That starting lyric: 'I don't want to do drugs anymore / If you saw me through the eyes of a bathroom stall / Your skin would crawl.' I didn't think that the label was going to let me put that lyric out. I thought they were going to make me change it," she admitted. "They didn't. And then I was like, 'F---.'"

"But it's good, it's good. I like to shock," she added.

So far, she's gotten her wish. In just one year, Latham has racked up rave reviews, hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners on Spotify, and cosigns from artists like The 1975 and "Drivers License" phenom Olivia Rodrigo.

In a roundup of 2020's best female albums, I described her debut EP "Medicine" as "a coming-of-age classic." Latham has built on this star-making foundation with a string of new singles, including "Dover Beach," which premieres on Wednesday.

She penned it last October during a solo writing trip, an excursion inspired by Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach."

"I went to this old Victorian hotel on the beach and I wrote it there," Latham said. "It's about going to see this place that you always wanted to see. But obviously at the same time, I had this really childlike infatuation with somebody. Everywhere I looked, I just saw them."

"It's like, you can move, you can go away from London, but your daydreams of that person are going to follow you there," she continued. "Yeah, it's about basically just sitting on Dover Beach and being unrequitedly in love."

The song's production mirrors the theme. Latham's anguished yearning is wrapped in '80s-inspired synths and twinkly chopped-up vocals, like sunlight glinting on the ocean surface.

Similar to the fan-favorite track "Want Me," Latham cleverly skewers the self-indulgence that comes with falling for someone from afar. "Dover Beach" is less about the person she's craving and more about the way those thoughts become consuming, warping her own experiences and perception of the world.

Latham told me she doesn't have much time to date these days ("The politician's answer," she smirks) so it makes sense why her "love songs" detail private musings instead of grand gestures.

She's also in the process of figuring out her sexuality, which she has "no idea" how to do.

Latham said she's "mostly dated men," though she's explored queer desire in her music. "Want Me," for example, was inspired by her crush on "Killing Eve" star Jodie Comer; and fans recently christened "Raw Thoughts" a "bi anthem" after Latham revealed its erotic lyrics are "not about a man."

"I'm going to be honest. I don't know," she explained when asked how she identifies. "I'm fine for other people to know that I don't know, because I don't think anyone knows. I'd say, like, bisexual - but also, I just don't know! I feel like I need to figure it out. I need to go speed dating."

"It's quite nice to set the record straight, in a way," she added, chuckling. "I don't think anyone's ever properly asked me about it. But I know that it's the most searched Google question about me. It's like, 'Baby Queen sexuality?'"

Self-mythology has its limits, especially when you're a 23-year-old on the cusp of superstardom during a pandemic.

Latham has big hopes for the future, including her forthcoming mixtape and a US tour when it's eventually safe, though she lamented the lack of "real-life experience" in the past year to write about.

Then again, Latham's done just fine by mining her inner life, from social-media delusions and dating-app-induced dazes to celebrity crushes and melancholy beach fantasies.

If Baby Queen stands for anything, it's sincerity and selfhood in a surreal, ridiculous world. After all, who needs reality when you're a Leo with a lilac-purple name?