Madison Beer is no stranger to turning heads, but when we meet at a Glendale coffee shop on a windy January afternoon, she’s surprisingly anonymous. After the lunching animators sporting matching DreamWorks lanyards clear out of the establishment, the remaining group of elderly Armenian gentlemen at the adjacent table appear to be totally oblivious to the pop star’s presence. Truthfully, had I been about 40 years older and enjoying an espresso with my fellow retirees, I wouldn’t have batted an eyelash either—except maybe to admire her belted gray herringbone minidress.

For Beer—who is in the midst of rolling out her highly anticipated third studio album, Locket—moments of anonymity like this are few and far between. While this particular group of men may not have recognized the Grammy-nominated Gen Z pop star, it’s safe to say their granddaughters would have certainly been starstruck.

Cover image from Who What Wear's February cover story with Madison Beer. The image features the Who What Wear logo with "February 2026" and Beer's name written on it. The Los Angeles skyline at sunset is in the background as Beer holds her hands up to her chin and looks off camera. She is wearing a black leather coat and layered rings.

Amid the enormity and pressure of this album cycle, Beer quickly defies all the usual tropes of a pop star—feedback she often gets from people she meets outside of the industry. “I have existed as a signed artist longer than I existed not being a signed artist,” she calls out. “It’s been my normal for a really long time. Fame never came into my life and turned into something that I let consume who I am.”

In the throes of her press tour and prep for The Locket Tour, which kicks off in May, Beer is on the precipice of several significant firsts. “When I perform at Madison Square Garden, I’m gonna probably shit myself twice,” she laughs. “That’s just been my dream for forever.” She is notably inquisitive, observant, and down-to-earth. To my shock and horror, she almost immediately clocks that we are from neighboring corners of the tristate area. “It’s just an essence, you know?” she says when I press her to reveal my seemingly glaring tell.

Image from Who What Wear's February cover story with Madison Beer. Beer is kneeling down in front of a tree. She is wearing a black leather coat. Written on top of the image are the lyrics to Beer's song "Bittersweet."

Locket, which was released in mid-January, sonically and lyrically communicates the continued complexities of her experience straddling normal life and celebrity, all the while being constantly dissected under a microscope. Whimsical arpeggiation, dreamy chimes, and brutally honest softness in songs like “Bittersweet” and “Bad Enough” juxtapose the electric energy and brash, magnetic confidence of “Yes Baby” and Grammy-nominated “Make You Mine.” This contrast, in many ways, mimics the duality of her own experience. Conceptually, Locket feels like a reclamation of a girlhood sabotaged by a system that forced Beer to grow up way too fast.