Young And Sad

Album: The End of Everything (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Noah Cyrus opens up about her mental health as she grapples with an all-consuming sadness.
  • The song opens with a voicemail Noah received one night from her father, Billy Ray Cyrus. She recalled to Apple Music: "I was having a hard time with myself. My dad called me, and hearing him tell me to put a smile on my face broke my heart, because I didn't feel like anybody really wanted to see me smiling."
  • Noah Cyrus wrote the contemplative song with Rollo Spreckley and PJ Harding. Originally, she sang, "I want to be young and sad," riding the emo trend of feeling miserable. However, it didn't sit right when she listened back, and after sitting with it for a while Cyrus reworked the lyrics to say "don't want to be young and sad." "There's this thing going on in music where sadness is becoming a theme," she said. "I am not trying to glorify (depression)."
  • Growing up, Noah struggled as Miley Cyrus' little sister because people gave her a hard time online for being Hannah Montana's younger sibling. She believed she'd never be able to escape from Miley's shadow. Noah reflects on her difficulties in the second verse.

    My sister's like sunshine, bringing good light wherever she'll go
    And I was born to rain clouds, blessed in her shadows.
    Because, that's why everybody always says to me, that no matter what,
    I was going to be in that shadow


    Speaking during an Instagram Live session, Noah explained the background to the lyrics. "That was something I heard my whole life, every single day, my whole life. It was either that or that I wasn't enough in some way, whether it was the way I look or the way I am."

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