Olivia Rodrigo has only been in the music scene for two years, and in that time she has made it pretty clear that she has a lot of insecurities.
The star, now 20, first found fame as a child actor on Disney at 13 years old, and her debut single, “Driver’s License,” was released to huge acclaim just one month before her 18th birthday.
And despite her overwhelming success, Olivia was sure to let fans know that she is just a regular teenage girl when she released her debut album, Sour — the very first line of its opening song, “Brutal,” is, “I’m so insecure I think that I’ll die before I drink.”
She explores this idea even more explicitly in the track “Jealousy, Jealousy,” where she admits that she is deeply affected by images of “girls too good to be true” on the internet, and compares her own appearance with their “paper-white teeth and perfect bodies.”
“Comparison is killing me slowly,” she sings in the chorus. “I'm so sick of myself / I’d rather be, rather be / Anyone, anyone else / My jealousy, jealousy started following me.”
Olivia was still facing the same battles on her sophomore album, Guts, which opens with the track “All-American Bitch,” which is about the pressure of trying to be perceived as a perfect young woman.
Then there is the song “Lacy,” in which Olivia repeatedly compares herself with another woman who she appears to be equally obsessed with and envious of. However, it is “Pretty Isn’t Pretty” that really drives home the extent of the star’s insecurities.
“Bought a bunch of makeup / Tryna' cover up my face / I started to skip lunch / Stopped eatin' cake on birthdays,” she sings in the song. “’Cause there's always something missing / There's always something in the mirror that I think looks wrong.”
Olivia goes on to say that no matter how much she tries to fix the things that she isn’t happy with, she still feels “so insecure.”
So with all that in mind, many were left disappointed by comments made by Jimmy Kimmel when Olivia appeared as a guest on his show earlier this week.
During the interview, the host held up the album artwork for Guts, with the back image a close-up photo of Olivia’s open mouth. Pointing to one of her teeth, Jimmy said, “You’ve got your mouth and a little chip of your tooth there also.”
The camera zoomed in on the barely noticeable chip as Olivia exclaimed, “Oh man!”
“You’re not perfect after all!” Jimmy then taunted before asking Olivia how she got the chip.
And Olivia was noticeably perplexed as she answered, “Y’know, Jimmy, I actually wasn’t aware that I had a chip in my tooth until this very moment. So new insecurity unlocked, thanks so much!”
She went on to awkwardly laugh as Jimmy made another comment about her needing “to have a dentist on set any time” she shoots something, going forward.
While Olivia was able to brush off Jimmy’s comment in the moment, people who have watched the clip online have been less forgiving of the TV veteran as they questioned why he was even pointing out a 20-year-old woman’s flaws on live TV in the first place.
It was quickly pointed out that making this comment to Olivia specifically doesn’t even make sense, considering her repeated acknowledgment that she actually isn’t perfect.
Some came to Jimmy’s defense as they theorized that he was actually referencing Olivia’s satirical song “All-American Bitch,” where she sarcastically sings, “I'm a perfect all-American bitch / With perfect all-American lips / And perfect all-American hips.”
Even so, the vast majority agreed that Jimmy was still out of line to comment on any young woman’s appearance in this way.
