• About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • The Wellesley (COVID) 100
      The Wellesley (COVID) 100
    • In memory of Professor Rebecca Summerhays
      In memory of Professor Rebecca Summerhays
    • Trans flag controversy: College power washes staircase after trans flag is painted over Harry Potter spray paint
      Trans flag controversy: College power washes staircase after trans flag is painted over Harry Potter spray paint
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • The News in Conversation: Wellesley Against Mass Incarceration
      The News in Conversation: Wellesley Against Mass Incarceration
    • Editorial Board calls for keeping up trans flag murals
      Editorial Board calls for keeping up trans flag murals
    • No, Elon Musk’s Twitter will not restore free speech
      No, Elon Musk’s Twitter will not restore free speech
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • Be/longing Centers Connection and Care
      Be/longing Centers Connection and Care
    • No image
      Birds Falling Upwards: Wellesley College Theater’s The Moors is a Must-See
    • No image
      Sometimes you just need to read a YA “Groundhog Day” to feel something
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
    • Books Before Boys
  • Health and Wellness
    • February Student Athlete of the Month
      February Student Athlete of the Month
    • Athletics Update
      Athletics Update
    • Victoria Garrick Speaks on Mental Health
      Victoria Garrick Speaks on Mental Health
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • The Wellesley Snooze
    • Wellesley News Leadership Changes Completely Peacefully Without Any Suspicious Disappearances At All
      Wellesley News Leadership Changes Completely Peacefully Without Any Suspicious Disappearances At All
    • Solve Your Connection Problems With Wellesley Insecure
      Solve Your Connection Problems With Wellesley Insecure
    • Mayhem strikes Wellesley as paper towels removed from campus
      Mayhem strikes Wellesley as paper towels removed from campus
  • Miscellanea
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
      Administrators shocked to learn that students dislike being left in dark
    • 50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
      50 Lies You Tell Yourself in Order to Survive Until Graduation
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Iris Martinez Features, News and FeaturesNovember 17, 2021

Isabel Pless ’22 Gains Fanbase on TikTok

image of Isabel Pless '22 in front of leaves
Photo courtesy of Isabel Pless '22.

Isabel Pless ’22 started posting clips of her songs on TikTok during the pandemic out of boredom. As a student who was fully remote during the 2020-21 academic year, she attended classes from home and felt unstimulated.

“[Music] was a way to process my emotions and to bring out a different creative aspect of myself that I wasn’t using during school,” Pless said. “I don’t know exactly why I started posting, I think I was just bored and wanted to see what would happen.’”

To her surprise, however, her TikTok account did well and she gained followers quickly. With over 85,000 followers, Pless’ videos regularly get up to nearly 400,000 views, providing support and validation.

“To have somebody confirm that my belief that I am good at [music] is true is just wonderful,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to connect with people, I think, as a career … and music allows me to do that in a way I never thought I would be able to, so it’s great.”

Her songwriting started off as poetry, which she wrote from a young age. In fifth grade, she took free guitar lessons and became infatuated with the idea of being able to sing and play her favorite songs. It was only when she was 12 that she decided to combine her writing and music.

“My parents are middle school teachers, but they teach [physical education] and history, so [music] was something I really found by myself,” Pless said. “I became fully obsessed with just the idea of being able to learn my favorite songs by myself and be able to sing them, … but when I was 12, Taylor Swift was a really big influence, and I was like, ‘I want to be a songwriter too,’ … and now it’s my favorite thing to do.”

As with many artists, she has her own favorite songs. Pless is proudest of “Family Tree,” the first song she released on Spotify, because it was her first public release and was about her family, which is important to her. However, when asked about her favorite, she said it keeps changing.

“A lot of the songs I haven’t released yet are probably my favorites, and it’ll probably keep changing because I think there’s something special about having a song that no one else has heard yet,” Pless said. “There’s one called ‘21’ that’s not out yet that was about my 21st birthday. All of my plans were changing. I was like, ‘Doing music as a career? I’d have to throw away my whole life plan that I had figured out before,’ and that was just really special because it’s so relevant to me now.”

That life plan she had was very different from the path she now wants to take. She planned to finish her cognitive and linguistic sciences major with an English minor, go to graduate school for speech and language and communication disorders, get her language and speech pathologist certification and then go into practice. But then her music started growing.

“I remember sitting down being like, I don’t know if I can in good conscience go through with that original plan without trying music, because that’s what I really want to do, and that was a hard decision because it’s really scary,” Pless said. “I mean, I’m someone who thrives off of planning, like, I’m here at Wellesley, are you surprised? …  It’s thrilling and also terrifying.”

Of course, her major isn’t entirely separate from a career in songwriting. Pless is particularly interested in phonetics and introducing rhymes into her lyrics.

“I love rhyme schemes, and I love things that almost rhyme but not quite, so you wouldn’t really expect it, but when it pops out you’re like, ‘Oh, interesting, haven’t heard that before!’ [Linguistics] makes me think really hard about what sounds are similar, alliteration, definitely, what types of vowels sound nice next to each other … it’s definitely something I try and incorporate,” she said.

Since expanding onto streaming platforms like Spotify, she has gained 45,000 monthly listeners. Even though Pless is aware of how many people support her, she finds it hard to visualize such a large number in connection to actual people. However, Spotify’s artist interface has unique tools that help humanize her following, such as the ability to see what playlists users are adding her songs to.

“One of my favorites was ‘Eldest Daughter’ ended up on [a playlist] called ‘Jo March’s dialogue in Little Women,’ and that made me feel really good,” she said. “It makes me feel so happy that people take what I make and can laugh at it, but also, I think I won’t be able to articulate it until I play a show and see people in person because right now it’s kind of like it exists in the ether.”

Despite the currently intangible nature of her following, Pless is still grateful for the support and how far she’s come.

“I just have to stop and think about where I am and think about what high school me would be thinking right now, and that’s a really powerful, moving experience … I’m really grateful that so many people at Wellesley have reached out and want to talk about my music.”

Tags

student spotlight

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleAbby Webster ’22 on her Guinness World Record
Next articleStudents on Mental Health after Remote Year

You may also like

The Wellesley (COVID) 100

In memory of Professor Rebecca Summerhays

Trans flag controversy: College power washes staircase after trans flag is painted over Harry Potter spray paint

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

Sorry. No data so far.

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
    • Staff Writers
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2022 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top