Chappell Roan's Fame Prison
Accessibility was the bedrock of early 00s mega-celebrity, but times are quickly changing.
“This job is very difficult for me to process and maintain a healthy mind and mindset,” pop star Chappell Roan declared in May 2023 on her TikTok. “I already have difficulty regulating my emotions because I have Bipolar II disorder. Everything is very exciting right now. And I’m realizing that success actually makes me quite uncomfortable and self-conscious and I’m not sure why yet.”
Little did she know then that the bar of success would have a mountainous ascent in the coming year. Her album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, released in September 2023 and featuring songs first released as early as 2020, has climbed to number two on the Billboard Albums charts and her Lollapalooza set earlier this month drew the largest crowd ever seen at the festival.
Rolling Stone described her Governor’s Ball performance from June akin to "watching Michelangelo craft the statue of David in real time.” She’s gotten shout-outs and co-signs from Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson, Adele, Katy Perry and more. In short, this is her moment. You might expect her to be basking in the glory, but instead, as foretold in that May 2023 video, success, or perhaps the fame that comes as a by-product, is not all it's cracked up to be.
Earlier this week, Roan took once more to TikTok to sound off on the harassment, stalking and “creepy behavior” from superfans of hers:
“If you saw a random woman on the street, would you yell at her from your car window? Would you harass her in public? Would you be offended if she says no to your time because she has her own time? Would you stalk her family? Would you follow her around? Would you try to dissect her life and bully her online?... I don’t care that this crazy type of behavior comes along with the job, the career field I’ve chosen. That does not make it OK. That doesn’t mean that I want it, that doesn’t mean that I like it… I don’t want whatever the fuck you think you’re supposed to be entitled to whenever you see a celebrity. I don’t give a fuck if you think it’s selfish of me to say no for a photo or for your time or for a hug… It’s weird how people think that you know a person just because you see them online and you listen to the art they make. That’s fucking weird! I’m allowed to say no to creepy behavior, OK?”
And mind you, this behavior is coming from her fans — not haters or trolls or people who wish to vilify her, but from those who purport to love her. So what’s the solution? Let’s dig deeper on the problem and see if we can suss out a better path forward — not just for Roan, but to disassemble the growing toxicity of the parasocial relationship between celebrity and fan, one often cultivated by mega-celebrities.