#*simpedits

I look at music as an art form. People usually write songs about how they feel and it's blatantly clear like: "He broke up with me" and the song that spawns is called "Heartbroken." I always thought it was way more fun to say that in a completely different way. I have a song called "Training Wheels" and it's about being in love and taking it to the next level by taking off the training wheels. I love the contrast between adult situations and kid themes. It just shows how it can all come back together.

[about how she wants her music to inspire girls]; I hope this album does (to girls) what it did for me. I hope people who feel insecure and uncomfortable with certain things - who feel like they can't change - feel the transformation I went through. I just feel so much better. It was therapy for me. I hope people feel more comfortable being a "cry baby." It's okay to be emotional. We're human beings; that's what it is.

"The whole point of being an artist is to make art. Who cares about what genre or slot it's in? Good Music is Good Music.”

"My first kiss was with a girlfriend. And it was at a party. I think I was hopeful that it would happen, but I didn't plan it. You know, honestly, I think if there's a little too much planning, it's almost just like self-sabotage. Because then, you want it to go a certain way and it just doesn't. And you're like, 'Awww, why?'"

Melanie Martinez photographed by Shanna Fisher

Melanie Martinez photographed by Emily Soto

“One of my mothers friends said to me ‘Your ex-boyfriends didn’t stand a chance with you and your mother.’ And I think that probably was unfair to them because she was the first person and last person I called about every single thing. Sorry ex-boyfriends.”