PRINCESSBRI

By Jenna Romaine
Photos by Connie Munroe

The “princess” stereotype can be complex—a multifaceted cliché that can emanate high-status smugness and self-centeredness, or the ditzy, well-meaning damsel in distress so many cartoons have promoted.

But PRINCESSBRI (real name Brianne Munroe) is neither. Her voice sounds like it’s perpetually smiling, disarming you in seconds. To put it simply, she radiates positivity.

Maybe it’s because of the inner journey she, like many, took to examine her life and her happiness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I had this super spiritual awakening over this pandemic and now I really don’t care about what other people think,” the Canadian musician, 22, says. “It was kind of just like I woke up one day, like, I’m so over trying to satisfy everybody else.”

It’s not an easy feat—as an up-and-coming musician with two albums, growing and keeping a solid fanbase is crucial to her success.

Deep down, Bri has always known what she wants. When she was 13, she told her mom she wanted to get a tattoo—a black outline of two roses on her left bicep.

“She was like, ‘If you want a tattoo, you’re going to have to draw it out yourself. It has to be something you did. Make it your phone background so you don’t get sick of it,’” Bri recalls.

And she did. For three years it was emblazoned across her phone’s screen until finally, on her 16th birthday, her mom took her to a shop to get it inked on her skin. The experience scratched an itch she found only a tattoo machine can satisfy. She began hopping the bus under the guise of visiting friends, just to come home later that day with new ink.

Though Bri initially only got black-and-grey tattoos—“it was just cheaper”—as she’s gotten older and more critical of the art she wants on her body, she’s begun to incorporate more color and thought into her designs.

“I have a childhood cartoon leg,” Bri laughs. “I got Spyro the Purple Dragon on my left leg. I have a little Polly Pocket, I have a Hello Kitty and then I have that really creepy, weird spider-baby thing from ‘Toy Story’ [Babyface]. I feel like it’s just healing my inner child—working through the traumas right now.”

This awakening self-work has bled into her music, as well. Bri has tried appeasing others before, following trends and allowing outside influences to sway her decisions (as most youths do at some point or another) and quickly discovered it impeded her happiness.

“I used to sing outside at recess super obnoxiously in front of everybody, like, standing on top of snow banks,” she says. “And then I kind of got bullied in school a little bit, so that killed that spark.”

When she entered high school, Bri got back into singing with the encouragement of her friends, uploading song covers to YouTube until she eventually garnered the confidence to create her own music.

“It just felt really therapeutic, and it was just helping me with my mental health a lot,” Bri says. “And then I was getting more and more plays, so it was like, oh, this feels really good. This feels like what I should be doing.”

But crafting a debut album, especially at a young age, is intimidating.

“My very first album [‘Little Baby Bitch’] was more like rap stuff, which never resonated with me,” Bri shares. “I don’t even really listen to rap music.”

Underground Soundcloud rap was having a viral moment, and Bri saw the chance to grow her fanbase. “But then it would be, like, four months later after I dropped the song,” Bri says, “and I would hate it. I just never wanted to share my music.”

Faced with her growing unhappiness in something that once brought her joy, she knew she had to make a change. Heading into her second album, “Sick of It All,” Bri tapped into her pop-punk roots, switching genres and finding her true passion. Now, as she drifts between Canada and Los Angeles recording her new album, she’s harnessing her love for alt-rock and pop-punk to craft an album that is unapologetically her.

“How you find your true confidence is you stop caring about what other people think and outside opinions,” she says, “and you start doing what really feels good to you.”

She’s blazing her own trail, and perhaps a new princess typecast in the process. If PRINCESSBRI is a princess, it’s because she knows her self-worth and isn’t willing to accept less than what she deserves.