Chappell Roan has explained she believes her "angry" younger self would be stunned by her current "freedom" of expression.
The Hot to Go singer reflected on her journey during an interview with the Call Her Daddy podcast, telling host Alex Cooper she had come so far to become comfortable as a queer woman that her former self would likely not recognise her as the same person.
"I don't even know if my young self would be able to register that as a part of me," Chappell, 27, said. "That's how removed... I was so, so, so opposite of me now. I just wasn't awoken."
Chappell, whose birth name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, added it had taken her a long time to grow comfortable with her sexuality after growing up in the culturally conservative Midwestern United States.
"Young Kayleigh just felt so restricted," she said. "Because I was a problem child and so angry and so depressed and I felt like no one understood me."
Achieving critical and commercial success as an openly gay musician had contributed to a sense of freedom she never believed she could access.
"Now, that part of me is so alive ... I just wanted to be free, but I didn't think it would actually happen," Chappell said.
"Now that it has, it's like she wouldn't believe it at all. I don't think she'd believe that this is what I do."