Lee reflects on early success

In 2023, Lee recalled the journey of early success, stating that “there was a lot to be excited about, but there was a lot of hard stuff going on in the background. Not just drama about what we were doing, but also my brother was sick, and it was a scary time to be out on my own. And I did, in a lot of ways at that time, feel alone.” She found the extensive exposure and objectification at that age difficult to handle, and did not feel supported by those around her. With everything happening, she was “just sure it was always right about to fall apart.” She described facing a lot of obstacles, including attempts at control and manipulation behind the scenes, as well as being considered just the singer/frontwoman among the men, and learning to say no to things. Lee deemed the “fight for credibility” as a creator to be one of the biggest challenges she faced early on with the Fallen era, explaining: “It was the mentality of labels to tell, especially newer artists, that they need to have writers. … And the reason that they wanted [men] to do it was because that’s where the money was. That’s where the power was. Everybody else wanted to be able to say they did that when I did that”. She also noted that, for being the frontwoman “people assume that it’s not yours. And some of the people around me were more than happy to let them believe that.”