Bailee Madison Launches Music Career with Song Reflecting on Her Child Actor Roots: 'A Hug to My Younger Self' (Exclusive)

The star’s debut single “Kinda Fun” is about “holding on to your roots and holding on to your inner child,” she tells PEOPLE

Before embarking on the next phase of her career, Bailee Madison had to take a trip down memory lane.

During last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike, the 24-year-old actress walked away from her life’s craft because she still had full baby teeth.

“It was a really weird thing for me because it was the first time I was really told I couldn’t do the one thing I’ve known since I was a little girl,” she tells PEOPLE.

To fill the gap, Madison — who made her big screen debut at age 6 in the 2006 crime drama Lonely hearts — decided to tackle a daunting, long-delayed task: deep cleaning her garage.

Cover for Bailee Madison’s debut single, “Kinda Fun.”.

Cibelle Levi

As she rummaged through bin after bin, she unearthed scores of scripts, call lists and set photos from her early roles – from Bridge to Terabithia to Keep going — and what started as a dusty blast from her past quickly became the catalyst for her first foray into pop music, “Kinda Fun.”

“I think a lot of it was the icing on the cake of the mental and quiet work I was doing in my own heart and my own brain,” she tells PEOPLE. “Which was actually trying to touch little Bailee in some way, and bring her back.”

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Shortly after a three-day cleanse, Madison embarked on a wine-fueled songwriting spree with her boyfriend, New Hope Club singer Blake Richardson — and “Kinda Fun” was born.

“We went to sleep and woke up and we were like, ‘Let’s see if we still like it, or maybe I just had one glass of white wine too many,'” Madison recalls. “Then I listened to it and we were like, ‘It just felt really honest and true.’ ”

Bailey Madison.

Cibelle Levi

“The only solution is self-evolution,” Madison sings in the pop song, a cathartic expression of how far she’s come — and the “F-it attitude” that paved the way for her current happiness.

“It’s kind of a hug for the younger me, and then like a pat on the back that I would give my current self to put the fun back into everything,” she says. “And it feels really good. This is probably the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.”

The song is also about “holding on to your roots and holding on to your inner child,” Madison says, adding that she “was so fearless” as a child.

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Bailee Madison at 7 years old.

Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage

The Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin star — who tried out her voice in the Netflix musical In a week in 2021 — is channeling that fearlessness now more than ever.

It’s disturbing to play music, period. But breaking into a new industry after spending nearly two decades—almost a lifetime—cementing herself as a different kind of artist is terrifying.

But if “there’s a chance for people to find themselves” in the song — or to rock out to it with their friends on TikTok — the trepidation will be well worth it, Madison says.

“Music has saved me so many times, and if by any chance I can have that connection with people, that would be a real treat,” he adds.

Bailey Madison.

Cibelle Levi

And, regardless of how “Kinda Fun” is received, the screen is Madison’s first love — and a chapter she doesn’t plan to close anytime soon.

“Acting is my whole heart,” she says. “I couldn’t imagine my life without it.”

“I love speaking the words of other people who are so talented and so gifted and getting into different characters and pushing myself in that world. But it’s also just as nerve-wracking to say your own words in a way and tell your own stories,” she says.

“And I feel like music gives you that opportunity.”

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Source: HIS Education