Nessa Barrett is a twenty-four year old American singer. She began her career by posting music on social media, which plummeted her to success in both the music industry and as an influencer. Her sophomore album, AFTERCARE, discusses the effects of being in a toxic relationship which is in itself a consequences of our culture’s obsession with sexualising young women.
Beginnings as an Artist
Nessa Barrett began by posting covers on TikTok, a platform known for elevating music of small artists. The popularity brought her a record deal with Warner Records. She released her first single Pain in the middle of 2020, followed by her second single If U Love Me at the end of the year.
Her first EP pretty poison talks about handling relationships while struggling with your mental health. Nessa has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, depression, suicidal thoughts, and eating disorders. The EP was released on World Suicide Prevention Day in 2021. Nessa’s music explores her struggles with mental health, hyper sexuality and slut-shaming, as well as her faith in God.
Development of her Music Career
In 2022, she released dying on the inside as a single. The track is about living with eating disorders, and how people don’t notice despite the symptoms exhibited.
Later that year, she released her first album, young forever. The album deals with heavy subjects such as mortality, slut-shaming, and suicidal thoughts. It also is a mirror of her borderline personality disorder diagnosis, with the songs switching from one intense emotion to another.
Her second EP titled hell is a teenage girl was released in 2023. It continues the discussion on slut-shaming and hyper sexualisation. She then released club heaven as a single dedicated to her best friend Cooper Noriega, who passed away in 2022.
AFTERCARE, A Healing Journey?
Her sophomore album, AFTERCARE, was released in November 2024. Immediately upon listening, I noticed the themes that have followed Nessa Barrett throughout her career. The narrative of the album is immaculate, telling a story from beginning to end. AFTERCARE isn’t only a continuation of her music career, it is a commentary on the damage of being hyper sexualised and at the same time, slut-shamed, does to young women. With this album, Nessa Barrett reclaims her power, while acknowledging the trauma of being in the spotlight at a young age.
In this article, we will focus on the analysis of each song and how they tie into each other, as well as with the rest of Nessa’s discography.
The Analysis
AFTERCARE begins with the title track, which is more of a prologue with its short length of a minute and a half. The melody is haunting, with reversed lyrics in the beginning followed by the question that will remain with us throughout the listen — “But will you stay when it ends?”
AFTERCARE, which is a term conceived for the process of providing support after sexual intercourse, takes a double meaning here. Nessa is asking her lover if they will stay after getting what they want from her, which is sex. Fears of abandonment creep in as she asks for reassurance that the person won’t leave. The fear echoes the treatment young women receive when being used for sexual activities, then discarded once they’re no longer fulfilling what the other wants.
P*RNSTAR reflects the need for authenticity in her sexual encounters. It is also reading for me as a criticism of the porn industry, which raises expectations that can’t be met. It opens a discussion about the performative act of a pornstar, and how women are expected to fill these pre-conceived roles. Not only is it unrealistic, but it also puts women in a position where they have to perform instead of focusing on their pleasure.
Show me who you are.
HEARTBEAT being the next track after P*RNSTAR confirms my theory with the first line.
Sacrificed my innocence too young.
Being exposed to sexual content too young can be harmful, and it can bring expectations of hyper sexuality in women. Men tend to take advantage of that and leave their sexual partners with trauma because of the lack of aftercare. In this track, Nessa asks her partner to bring her back to life, which could be expressing the toll of growing up in this culture of hyper sexualisation and slut-shaming.
I’m just a baby, but they try to slut-shame me
It’s your fault I’m crazy, yeah,
That’s what you made me.
hell is a teenage girl, Nessa Barrett
The next track, DISCO, talks about seeing a partner outside of a sexual setting. The upbeat track conceals the internal dilemma of the narrator who asks herself “Am I falling in love, or falling into sin?“. Being used for sexual favours is common nowadays for women, and it’s difficult to distinguish who is truthful about their intentions. Although the narrator has already slept with this person, there’s a new dimension with the relationship dynamic being questioned.
Wanna see where this goes,
Make me feel alive.
The production of the song is one you’d hear in a club, therefore also immersing us in the atmosphere. Tommy Genesis’ verse continues the religious themes of feeling guilty about not respecting the Holy Bible, but recognising how good this feeling is for them.
As DISCO transitions with a car speeding away, we get into PASSENGER PRINCESS. The concept of a passenger princess is someone who is used to being next to the driver, giving directions or selecting the music, or being an entertainer. Nessa described the song as being in the “honeymoon phase”, when you’re so enamoured with your partner that you can’t see them, or the relationship, clearly.
I can sit pretty
On your famous leather seats.
The album builds this imagery of young women being treated as dolls, delicate beings who only exist to please men. Since we form most of our identity in our teenage years and our twenties, men take the opportunity to insert their desires in a woman’s identity. By becoming his fantasy, women lose parts of themselves.
I’m your shotgun, baby, for the long run
Don’t you know I’d die for you, I ride for you.
Nessa takes the concept of the passenger princess and makes it much more intense. With mentions of HEARTBEAT (“Can you feel my heartbeat?”), she sees this person as her saviour, the one who brought her back to life. In return, there is this obsession making her vulnerable to being at his service — including putting her life on the line.
The next song, MUSTANG BABY, ties into the same themes of devotion to someone. However, there’s a hint of self awareness that wasn’t present in the previous song. The narrator recognises that this person has changed her, but she is still on his side. The song is very sexual, describing reckless behaviour while driving, but also exhibits a clear double meaning. By fitting into the mould of who he wants her to be, she will become a prized possession. This shows how being given the right amount of attention by the wrong person can make you lose who you are. It is proof that girls are told they have to use their bodies to receive love, but that isn’t reality. It is rather a matter of human connection with the desire of feeling wanted and being needed.
RUSSIAN ROULETTE slows down the production, which until now was easy to get lost in and ignore the red flags. Here, the narrator admits that she doesn’t know where this relationship will take her. There are prevalent issues since she has no idea where she stands with him. Despite knowing he isn’t good for her, she admits she doesn’t care if she dies for him.
I’d still play the game if you asked me to,
Hoping for the best with a gun against my head.
This shows how much control men have over the women who are in love or limerence with them. They know how much power they have, because they disguise being sexual as being in love.
If you gotta go
Put the blindfold on my eyes
I’ll hold on to hope.
When faced with potential abandonment, a lot of women know it’s happening, but refuse to see it for what it is. After giving everything to a man they trusted with their heart, it is difficult to reconcile the possibility that they were being used.
S.L.U.T. is a desperate plea for the woman’s partner to see how much she cares for him. She’s listing all these things she would do for him. Ar the same time, she convinces herself she is fine with being treated as less than, because at least she has him. After noticing the cracks in the unstable foundation of the relationship, she wants to avoid abandonment. She leans onto these toxic behaviours instead of away. Sex, lies, ugly truth, is about the sacrifice of women’s happiness for men’s desires.
I’d kill for you, I’d lie and steal,
I swear to God that’s how I feel
So pull my hair and call me names
I don’t care, I’m not ashamed.
BABYDOLL is the culminating point of the toxic mindset of women believing hyper sexualisation is the answer to being loved. In the song, there is the admission of being used and treated like a doll instead of a human being.
Haven’t seen the light of day
Collecting dust, what’s my name?
This might express the depressive state of being cast aside after sacrificing her identity for this man. She doesn’t know who she is without him because she put his needs first and forgot her own individual self in the process. There’s an undertone of young women keeping their needs and wants silent so they can find a male partner. The identity of the young woman in this case is discarded. She exists only in relation to him — which explains why many young women are being categorised as “his girlfriend”, “his daughter”, “his sister”, etc. Being socialised with these expectations, women internalise them. That leads to forgetting they are the priority in their lives, not the men surrounding them.
You broke me, baby,
I fell apart
You can’t walk away
After you hurt me
I’m damaged goods
You can’t return me
I’m still your babydoll.
Nessa is warning him that he can’t leave her stranded after breaking her heart. He needs to take accountability for the way he acted. The song ends with distorted sounds and a repetition of the lyrics “I’m your babydoll”. Through these vocals, Nessa shows her desperation, heartbreak and anger at the same time. This is the beginning of coming into her empowerment.
The repetition of lyrics follows in GIVEN ENOUGH, with the acceptance that she’s a victim of a person’s untruthful intentions. She’s aware there’s nothing she could have done to keep them around.
Haven’t I given enough, given enough to you?
This person keeps coming back to Nessa because they know she’ll be there. They take advantage of the emotional attachment she has towards them. The lyrics compare them to a vampire, someone who only comes around when they need to survive at the expense of the other person. Although she’s aware of the suffering they’re causing her, she still can’t quite detach herself.
All you have to do is cry
And I’m runnin’, I’m runnin’
Emotional manipulation is often used by men to get what they want from women. Even if there’s still a responsibility to comfort him, she realises this person has never been the one she thought. He’s not her saviour. She knows by not leaving this toxic dynamic, she’s the who will keep suffering the consequences.
No, you never saved my life
You killed me a thousand times
All you do is make me cry
Loving you is suicide.
The question of “Haven’t I given enough?” returns at the end. It begins with a quiet voice, becoming louder with a similar desperation and anger shown on the previous track. After repressing all of these emotions to be what they wanted, she’s letting go and telling the truth.
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS expresses the compassion she still has for him. However, this time she knows she has to put herself first. The denial she lived in to convince herself he wasn’t hurting her has disappeared. She knows allowing him into her life again means inevitable heartbreak. He will get bored of her again, so she refuses to get back with him.
And though it breaks my heart
To leave you with your scars
Fixing you would just break me.
GLITTER AND VIOLENCE calls out the glamourising of sex work as reclaiming women’s power. In reality, it’s an industry that profits off young women. It disguises itself as a feminist movement, ignoring the trauma and violence that comes with entering this field of work.
They only want you when you’re young
That’s what they tell me.
Men prey on young girls because they don’t know better. They haven’t had the life experiences of women in their late 20s or older. Nessa Barrett has been in the eye of the public since she was seventeen. She might have felt pressured, like many artists who were minors at the time they got famous, to sexualise herself in order to be considered. However, these same people will turn against young girls when they do start dressing and acting more sexual.
They refuse to look at the core problem — which is that young girls feel they need to show as much of their bodies as they can to even get a chance. Once they’re no longer young or seemingly innocent, they are either criticised or ignored by the general public. Older men are the perpetrators. They make young women think that their worth depends on what they can give to them.
Somebody’s daughter’s got your daddy tonight.
While the song criticises the false advertising that sex work uses to lure girls into the industry, looking beneath the surface, Nessa is also singing about the music industry. The music industry wants novelty and hyper sexualisation, shutting down the career of anyone who doesn’t adhere to their criteria.
They only want you in a cage
For your eyes only
The American stage
For the lost and unholy.
GLITTER AND VIOLENCE is an important song that pairs perfectly with the theme of the album. So far, we had songs talking about a specific person, or a specific relationship. Here, Nessa Barrett points out that what she went through isn’t unique, on the contrary, it’s common practice.
PINS AND NEEDLES shows the consequences of staying in an unhealthy relationship for a long time. Each time women bury their emotions so they’re not “too much” for a man, these emotions become more intense and difficult to deal with in the long run. In this particular song, the narrator talks about how numb she feels after everything is over. Numbness is a defence mechanism often used by our brains when there’s too many emotions to process at a time. Anger, hurt, frustration, hatred, all of them combined make us turn off our emotions and not feel anything. In the moment, the brain believes that numbness is the solution, but these unresolved issues tend to come back later.
I feel nothing for you, nothing for you.
STAY ALIVE shows the comedown. The loneliness of being on her own and the thoughts that make her want to end her life.
Here we go again
I’m standing on the edge
Here with my old friend
The voices in my head
I’m taking one more step
Don’t look down, no.
It’s only a moment, but she finds the strength to pull herself back from that urge by reminding herself that she has a lot to live for.
The shit that I would die for
Is the shit I stay alive for.
The lyrics continue by displaying moments of despair, versus moments of bliss, all of which are temporary. Both extremes can pull someone down after going through a lot of pain and a loss of self-identity. However, it’s worth remembering that there’s a lot to be alive for. By repeating the two lines above, Nessa creates a mantra that can disarm someone in the danger of the moment. Not only that, but the things we repeat to ourselves become part of how we perceive ourselves.
DIRTY LITTLE SECRET is the last track on the standard edition of the album. The trauma of the past relationships follow Nessa. These experiences make her become closed off to the possibility of love. While she is now in control of her sexuality, she wants no one else to know about the relationship other than her sexual partner. The conclusion of the album shows the consequences of having her identity be dissected by everyone. At the same time, the loss of control causes emotional unavailability.
Don’t you look at me like that, it’s just too real
Feels so good when I don’t know the way you feel.
In Conclusion
Nessa Barrett’s album perfectly describes the experience of growing up in the spotlight. Young women such as her are being told their value lies in their youth and their body. Hyper sexualisation is valid when it comes from a person’s own desire, not when it is influenced by outside factors. There is a lot of pressure put on girls to be attractive, desirable, at the same time being shamed when they express their sexuality. Nessa described the album as one of female empowerment. The album doesn’t blame young girls for not knowing better. In the opposite, it’s cathartic and reminds them to focus on their self worth.
There is no right balance to please everyone. What we hope you take away from this album and the commentary is to do what you want. Listen to your inner self and ignore outside influences such as boyfriends or other people. At the end of the day, you are the one who has to live with yourself. The system’s deep flaw is shaming women for doing anything, so what’s the point in trying to please others?
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