Addison Rae's TikTok success has given her the opportunity to "explore [her] deep desires"

The 'Diet Pepsi' hitmaker told ELLE: "All of that led me to where I am right now.

"What's funny to me is that people assume that these passions are new. First of all, no one ever even knew who I was before I was a freshman in college, so it's like, 'How would you even know what my interests were before?' I grew up dancing; I've always loved to sing.

"I acknowledge how lucky I am that I was on TikTok, and people cared enough to watch my videos and follow me, and therefore gave me the freedom to be able to explore my deep desires that I've always had. It's like, 'What am I going to do? Not chase my dreams because I feel like I haven't done enough school to get here? Or I haven't had enough experience?' It's like, 'No, the door opened for me, and I'm going to go through and explore it.'"

Addison can understand why people have been critical of her music.

But the pop star insists that her music is an accurate reflection of her real-life self.

Addison - who is set to release her debut album later this year - explained: "I totally get why people may feel like this isn't who I really am. But it's like, 'No, maybe I didn't want to show you who I really was because I was afraid of confronting that, and I was afraid of what people would say about it.'"

By contrast, Addison no longer worries about her critics these days, insisting that she feels "proud" of her music success.

She said: "As long as every day I feel like I'm putting out things I'm proud of and inspiring people, then I have no complaints ... I'm succeeding at what I want to do. I've definitely gotten much further than I expected to."