Charli xcx opens up about identity struggle behind album 'Brat'

Charli xcx opened up about her struggles as a mixed-race woman and the inspiration behind her record-breaking album Brat.

In a recent chat with Swedish rapper Yung Lean for Dazed magazine’s Winter 2025 Issue, the 33-year-old singer, whose father is Scottish and mother is Indian, poured her heart out about her experiences as a mixed-race woman and Musician.

Charli, who grew up in England, admitted that feeling like an outsider is a common thing for her.

“I never felt accepted where I went, whether that was in school for being half-Indian and not blonde, or not fully relating to my Indian self because I was half-white,” the singer began. “There was this weird, displaced feeling, where I couldn’t quite fit into either place.”

The 365 singer, whose real name is Charlotte Aitchison, continued, “Then with music, being outside of the mainstream and wanting to be in that world, but also really wanting to reject it. It created this concoction that allowed me to [make Brat],” she continued.

“I feel like I used to be very afraid. Not since 2016, really, but prior to that I was very afraid," she added.

Though Charli's parents, Jon and Shameera Aitchison, are her biggest supporters, she has been vocal about the challenges of growing up with parents of different races.

“When I would go and visit my mum’s family, I felt very Indian. It was all the classic scenes of my nani and bappa cooking with Bollywood films playing in the background and everybody speaking in Gujarati," she told Vogue Singapore in 2024.

“But then I’d go home to this other world, which was largely white. It was almost like I would experience the Indian part of my identity only on the weekends. I never quite felt like I fit into either world, which I think commonly happens with mixed-race kids," she added at the time.