By Jenna Romaine
Photos by Connie Munroe
The “princess” cliché can be complex — a multi-faceted cliché that can exude high-level smugness and self-centeredness, or the dimwitted, well-meaning damsel in distress that so many cartoons have promoted.
But PRINCESSBRI (real name Brianne Munroe) is neither. Her voice sounds like she’s constantly smiling and will disarm you in seconds. To put it simply, she exudes positivity.
Perhaps it’s because of the inner journey she, like many others, has taken examining her life and happiness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve had this super spiritual awakening during this pandemic and now I really don’t care what other people think,” says the Canadian musician, 22. “It was like I woke up one day, like I was sick of everyone to please others.”
It’s no easy feat – as an aspiring musician with two albums, building and maintaining a solid following is critical to her success.
Deep down, Bri has always known what she wants. When she was 13, she told her mother that she wanted to get a tattoo – a black border of two roses on her left bicep.
“She was like, ‘If you want a tattoo, you have to draw it yourself. It must be something you did. Make it your phone background so you don’t get tired of it,’” Bri recalls.
And she did. It was on the screen of her phone for three years until her mother took her to a shop to have it tattooed on her skin on her 16th birthday. The experience scratched an itch she found only a tattoo machine could satisfy. She began boarding the bus under the pretense of visiting friends, only to return home later in the day with new ink.
Photo by Connie Munroe
Though Bri only got black and gray tattoos at first — “it was just cheaper” — as she’s gotten older and more critical of the art she wants on her body, she’s started incorporating more color and thought into her designs.
“I have a cartoon leg from when I was a kid,” laughs Bri. “I have Spyro the Purple Dragon on my left leg. I have a little Polly Pocket, I have a Hello Kitty and then I have this really creepy weird baby spider thing from ‘Toy Story’ [Babyface]. I feel like it’s healing my inner child right now – I’m working through the trauma right now.”
This awakening self-work has also flowed into her music. Bri has a history of trying to placate others, following trends and being swayed by outside influences (as most youngsters eventually do) and quickly found that this hindered her happiness.
“I used to sing super obnoxious in front of everyone outside at recess, like I was standing on snow banks,” she says. “And then I got bullied a little bit at school, so that killed that spark.”
When she entered high school, with encouragement from her friends, Bri took up singing again and uploading song covers to YouTube until she finally gained the confidence to make her own music.
“It just felt very therapeutic and helped a lot with my mental health,” says Bri. “And then I kept getting more and more plays, so I was like, oh, that feels really good. That feels like what I should be doing.”
But writing a debut album, especially when you’re young, is daunting.
“My very first album [‘Little Baby Bitch’] was more rap stuff, which never appealed to me,” shares Bri. “I don’t even really listen to rap music.”
Underground Soundcloud rap was going viral and Bri saw an opportunity to grow her fan base. “But then it was about four months after I released the song,” says Bri, “and I would hate it. I just never wanted to share my music.”
Faced with her growing dissatisfaction with something that had once brought her joy, she knew she had to change something. On the way to her second album, Sick of It All, Bri tapped into her pop-punk roots, switched genres, and found her true passion. Now, hovering between Canada and Los Angeles to record her new album, she’s using her love of alternative rock and pop-punk to create an album that’s uncompromisingly herself.
“How you find your true confidence is when you stop caring about the opinions of others and the opinions of others,” she says, “and you start doing what feels really good to you.”
She carves her own path and may become a new princess in the process. If PRINCESSBRI is a princess, it’s because she knows her worth and isn’t willing to accept less than she deserves.