Claire Cottrell, known as Clairo, recorded Pretty Girl on a cheap keyboard in her childhood bedroom and became a viral sensation almost overnight. But fame arrived with accusations that her whole career was a manufactured lie, as internet sleuths discovered her father was a high-level marketing executive with industry connections, branding her a nepo baby and industry plant.

We trace how a self-taught guitarist who learned from YouTube tutorials survived instant internet fame, proved her legitimacy through genuine songwriting, and deliberately dismantled her bedroom pop persona to protect herself. From a grueling tour that made her hair fall out to retreating to the woods of upstate New York, this is a study in reinvention over relevance.

• How the YouTube algorithm and her intimate, unpolished aesthetic drove Pretty Girl’s explosion
• The industry plant controversy and Clairo’s own acknowledgment of her privilege
• The physical toll of touring while battling juvenile idiopathic arthritis, depression and anxiety
• Her sonic evolution from bedroom pop to the orchestral Sling and the analog jazz-tinged Charm
• Quirky video choices with a yeti and Weird Al, plus her 2025 Grammy nomination and activism