It wasn’t too long ago when pop singer Carlie Hanson was living in Wisconsin and working at McDonald’s. Now, the 18-year-old is touring across the country with some of the biggest names in music today—something she has yet to get used to.

“Just recently, it hit me,” she said when asked about the moment she felt her music career officially took off. “Like, all my friends are going off to college and I’m on tour right now.”

Like several of today’s hottest pop acts, Hanson attracted audiences with her music via the internet. However, one of her biggest inspirations rose to fame before social media and didn’t come from the pop scene at all. “I could write a book about, f—ing Nirvana and Kurt Cobain,” she said. “I can relate to [Cobain] and his writing and journals. He had a great sense of humor, and his interest in art…he was such an interesting person.”

Hanson has managed to put a number of accomplishments under her belt in a relatively short amount of time. In 2018 alone, she has released singles “Us” and “Mood,” the latter of which came out on her 18th birthday. In addition, her song “Goodbye” is on the soundtrack of Netflix movie Sierra Burgess is a Loser. When asked about her music being in the film, she said, “I actually wrote the song probably over a year ago. I wasn’t writing it for that movie, it just happened to fit the soundtrack so well and they took it. But when I found out that it was on the soundtrack, I s— myself. I saw it at the premiere and I was so grateful to be part of that because it’s such a good movie.”

Although Hanson’s career continues to grow, her goal as an artist is simple. “The only thing I hope is that it makes the person feel something,” she said. “I don’t care if it’s happiness, sadness…just walk away from the song feeling differently. It’s why I got into music in the first place.”

Hanson is set to perform alongside Kim Petras and Troye Sivan at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom on October 20.