Mya Angelique enters the spotlight unapologetically with her debut EP, "paper girls" a raw, stunningly emotional seven-track journey through the complex, fragile space of teenage girlhood. Clocking in at little over 22 minutes, the project is short, sharp, and striking, not unlike the emotions it captures. Drawing on the confessional songwriting traditions of Olivia Rodrigo, Gracie Abrams, and Maisie Peters, Mya tells stories and bears them.
Recorded mostly when she was 15, paper girls play like a public reading from a private diary, projected through layers of longing melodies and razor-etched pop-rock. From the opening track to the last chord, the EP is a portrait of adolescence in all its beautiful, embarrassingly sticky glory. Standouts like "sixteen" land like a gut punch, blending vulnerability and vivid lyricism that's immediately relatable. And "glitter," meanwhile, is a soft rebellion a lullaby and a howl, luxurious and defiant in equal measure, an poem to the contradictions of growing up. There's a whole cinematic aspect to this whole project.
Each song plays like a scene from a coming-of-age film, where heartbreak, euphoria, and self-discovery all whirl around in teenage bedrooms and hazy late-night drives. A young artist coming to terms with what it is to feel things too much and yet never quite feel transformed. On "paper girls," Mya Angelique makes it clear that she's one that reverberates long after the music has faded. This is the kind of debut that demands your attention. Welcome to the age of Mya Angelique. We're all just living in her pages.
