The Real Meaning Behind Olivia Rodrigo's Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl
On September 8, 2023, Olivia Rodrigo released her second studio album, "GUTS." While her first collection of songs, titled "Sour," mostly centered around the innocence-shattering heartbreak of a teenager, "GUTS" takes on more coming-of-age themes, accompanying its rock-inspired pop sound with songs about making mistakes and coming into your own.
"Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" is one song that centers around teen angst and social anxiety, with the lyrics pointing to feelings of social alienation. Considering Rodrigo was once a homeschool student herself, the tune appears to take inspiration from the singer's personal experiences, as many of her songs do.
Look no further than the lyrics of this grunge-inspired tune to understand that it's all aboutĀ social awkwardness and feeling like you don't belong. With this in mind, here's everything to know about the real meaning behind Olivia Rodrigo's "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl."
'Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl' is about being socially awkward
As mentioned, Olivia Rodrigo's "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" is all about feeling socially awkward. The singer expresses this by listing a series of social faux pas in the chorus, with the lyrics, "I broke a glass, I tripped and fell / I told secrets I shouldn't tell / I stumbled over all my words / I made it weird, I made it worse." From the physical clumsiness to the conversational missteps, these lines convey a sense of social ineptitude that the singer is obviously embarrassed by.
The second verse of the track similarly focuses on social blunders, with the "Vampire" singer shifting to focus more on romantic slip-ups, rather than social awkwardness in general. The song goes, "I talkŠµd to this hot guy, swore I was his type / Guess that he was makin' out with boys, like, the whole night (Oh) / Everythin' I do is tragic (Oh) / Every guy I like is gay (Oh)." In this instance, the singer incorrectly interprets a guy as romantically interested in her when he is actually interested in other guys.
These lyrics demonstrate the narrator's inability to properly read social situations, which in turn causes her to feel insecure. Combined with the faux pas of the chorus, these lines all work to demonstrate the song's central concept of social awkwardness, playing into the theme of alienation.
The song deals with the idea of social exclusion
The concept of social awkwardness plays an important theme in "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl," as feelings of exclusion and social ostracism are central to the song. This is established from the first verse of the track, with the lyrics, "And I don't think I get along with anyone / Blood runnin' cold / I'm on the outside of the greatest inside joke." Here, Olivia Rodrigo uses the concept of an inside joke to convey social exclusion and an inability to relate to others.
Both the themes of exclusion and social awkwardness culminate in the final lines of the chorus, with Rodrigo singing, "Each time I step outside, it's social suicide / It's social suicide, wanna curl up and die." If you're unfamiliar, social suicide is the act of ruining your social reputation, typically by doing something embarrassing. The term is often associated with "Mean Girls," as the main character Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is warned against joining the math team by Regina George (Rachel McAdams), as it would ruin her popularity.
This concept joins together the ideas of social awkwardness and ostracism, two of the song's most important themes, as those who commit social suicide are alienated by their peers due to an embarrassing social misstep. In this way, "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" is all about the singer feeling alienated from her peers due to her continual social ineptitude.
What does the title 'Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl' mean?
While examining the lyrics of "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" reveals the song's meaning, fans of the tune might still be wondering how the title relates to it all. The title references the idea that children who are homeschooled are more socially challenged compared to those who attend school with their peers. Though this is a contested concept, it apparently rings true for Olivia Rodrigo, who was homeschooled herself.
"I was homeschooled and all of this stuff happened in my career, but then I really boiled my problems down and I'm like, 'Oh, they're just 19-year-old, 20-year-old problems in a different environment,'" the California native shared with Phoebe Bridgers via Interview Magazine. "If you speak honestly about any experience, then someone is going to find truth in it," she added.
In addition to this, Rodrigo revealed to Rolling Stone that the title is inspired by "Ballad of a Thin Man" by Bob Dylan (per Genius). The 1965 song describes a Mister Jones, who finds himself an outsider amidst unconventional crowds of the artsy, rock 'n' roll scene of the '60s, a concept that shares some parallels with "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl."