ettie turns old wounds into a pop-punk reckoning on new single ‘I Let People Be Mean’

There's no attempt to make ‘I Let People Be Mean’ sound emotionally tidy. ettie drags years of swallowed hurt, people-pleasing and self-erasure into the open, then gives all of it the kind of crashing guitars and huge melodic lift that made early Paramore and Avril Lavigne feel so essential in the first place.

Written alone on a dark November night and recorded at Animal Farm Studios, the single feels like a breaking point finally turned into momentum. The artist looks back at the version of herself who wanted acceptance badly enough to tolerate cruelty, and the writing is strongest when it refuses to soften how damaging that became.

The central image of being “made of paper” is especially effective, capturing the impossible performance of pretending to have a thick skin while every comment still leaves a mark. it highlights a strong emotional core, but the music refuses to stay fragile for long.

Starting with an acoustic-led aesthetic , ‘I Let People Be Mean’ slowly builds and crashes with real force. Thick guitars and punchy drums push the song towards the cathartic side of 2000s pop-punk, while her vocal carries enough rawness to stop the track feeling like a simple genre throwback.

But what makes the song hit even harder is that it doesn't end by replacing hurt with empty bravado. Her version of growth is more complicated than that. The lesson isn't to become colder or crueler; it's to stop confusing endurance with strength.

‘I Let People Be Mean’ feels like the opening of a louder, heavier chapter for ettie, but its impact still comes from the same quality that has always defined her strongest work. Fierce, vulnerable and gloriously cathartic, it turns years of being treated like a doormat into the sound of finally standing up.