“My Purpose Online Is to Rage Bait Misogynistic Men”: Inside girli’s "It’s Just My Opinion"
- Josh Kitchen
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
By: Josh Kitchen / May 7, 2026
“That became my mantra,” girli’s Milly Toomey told me earlier this spring ahead of the release of her new album It’s Just My Opinion, out tomorrow. girli has quietly become one of the most exciting alt-pop voices to emerge from the North London scene in years, crafting self-aware, genre-defying, in-your-face anthems packed with massive hooks, while never shying away from messages of advocacy, acceptance, and the transformative power music can have for LGBTQ listeners and anyone searching for a place to belong.
The aforementioned opinions aren’t exactly controversial — women should be afforded the same rights and sense of safety as men without debate, a novel concept! But what sets girli apart from so many of her contemporaries is her unapologetic and ferocious drive to create a safe space for her fans at a time when so many young people feel increasingly alienated by a men’s rights-dominated online culture that continues to spread through social media and modern pop discourse. Luckily, girli isn’t backing down.
On It’s Just My Opinion, girli returns with 12 tracks of unbridled joy, desire, dancefloor catharsis, and razor-sharp pop songwriting. But alongside the euphoria are some of her most vital songs yet — including “Slap on the Wrist,” a track that may very well stand as the most important song she’s released to date.
You talk about a lot of important, really serious things in your music, but at the same time, you leave a lot of room for happiness, joy, and expression, which I think is really refreshing. I was hoping you could talk a little bit about that push and pull of those feelings and emotions.
I think a lot of artists maybe choose one facet of themselves to put out with their art. You’ll have artists who are like, “Okay, the dark part of me is coming out in my art,” or just the super romantic part, or the party part, or whatever. Whereas with me, I’m like, I have to put everything in. It can’t be one thing. So I think with songwriting, it’s always kind of been like journaling for me. It’s not just one thing — it’s everything. And with my online presence, which is a big part of how I’ve built my fanbase as well as my music, I see that too. I just try to be as authentic and real as I can be and share all kinds of parts of myself. So yeah, I think the songs represent loads of different emotions. There’s anger, there’s activism, there’s heartbreak, but there’s also obsession and love, and family. It’s all kinds. It’s a therapist’s wet dream.
I think people who love your music — and people who might not know your music as well and are just coming to you because of this record — there’s so much here for so many different listeners. Like you just described, we are more than just one thing or one idea. And musically, there are so many styles on this. You have some sick beats on “Bones,” rock anthems on “Squirm,” almost some hip-hop and very poppy vibes. I love that not just lyrically, but musically you can hear so many of the things you love.
Yeah, it’s fun. I mean, one of the songs on the album, “Slap on the Wrist,” which was the second single from the album — that was the first time I’ve ever been added to rock playlists, which was crazy for me, and it was so exciting. Because for me, the songwriting and lyricism and storytelling are what will always make my music mine, and I love experimenting with different sounds. Musically, I loved making some rockier songs on this album. I loved doing my trademark big pop vibes. There are some songs that are almost like — I mean, there’s a song called “Traces” on the album that’s almost a little dancey. I don’t know.
There's an early-aughts R&B vibe on that one.
Right? And I think it speaks to how everybody finds music these days and how we listen to it. You don’t have to just choose one thing anymore. It’s not like you have $20 and have to pick one album to buy. Everyone listens through subscriptions where you can hear anything you want. My music library is full of all kinds of genres, as I’m sure everyone’s is, so it felt natural for that to bleed into my own music and for everything to become a different exploration of different things.
I’m glad you brought up “Slap on the Wrist.” It's an important song. It deals with some very heavy stuff. You’re talking about sexual assault on the song, and the idea of men getting off for things they shouldn’t be getting off for, while women and people who identify as female — and everyone in between — have to live with the shame and feel victimized by this kind of thing. But you put it through this really beautiful pop song. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Oh, thank you. Yeah, I mean, for me, when I write songs about heavy, serious topics like that, I think I only write them because I’m fully ready at that point to talk about it and share it. I think that’s maybe why I didn’t write a song about that topic for years. I’ve been releasing music for like 10 years, and it’s the first time I’ve written a song specifically about that, but it just felt like the right time. It’s been a really crazy time to release a song like that too. I released the track like a week or two before the Epstein files came out, and that whole thing is about powerful men getting away with horrendous things because of culture and abuse of power. So it’s been a really crazy time to release a song like that. But I’ve found it really cathartic, and it’s been amazing seeing people reach out and say, “Thank you for talking about this.”
And releasing it is artistically and personally very brave. Not that someone who isn’t ready to open up about those things isn’t brave, but someone with a platform like yourself putting this kind of thing into the world — and then I see your online presence and you’re just ready to go. I love how ready you are to pounce on online reply guys.
I’m ready. I literally said to myself earlier this year, “My purpose online is to rage bait misogynistic men and feed the gays.” That became my mantra. And honestly, with this song too, social media being mostly owned now by Trump benefactors — all the main social media apps are owned by them now, which is a crazy statistic — there’s a lot of censorship going on. A lot of my videos, which are intended for my fans or people who align with my views, find their way into really crazy Andrew Tate-level internet spaces. There was one point where I posted something promoting this song and it got like 5,000 comments on Facebook, and I knew those were hate comments.
They weren’t new fans.
Exactly. And I was like, you know what? Sometimes it’s good to engage in conversations with people who don’t agree with you. Sometimes that can be productive. But mostly, people online who are trying to hate — I mean, it’s a song about perpetrators of sexual assault facing harsher consequences. That is not a controversial opinion. And I was like, I’m choosing my own peace with this and not reading or engaging with those comments.
That takes a lot of self-control.
For real. I was just like, nope. But every video that reaches a new audience — even if there are 5,000 hate comments — there might be 20 people who are like, “Hey, this is really cool. I’m glad I found this.” That’s the point of it.
Giving someone who’s looking for validation — maybe without even realizing they’re looking for it — an artist like yourself saying these things is so much more important than a bunch of loser guys getting mad online. Even if it’s fewer people, it’s a bigger impact. So what are you hoping people take away from this album? Not just that topic specifically, but overall?
I think I always hope with my music that people hear the stories I’m telling and somewhere in there feel like, “Oh, this person understands me,” or “I feel validated that someone else is experiencing this too,” or “I feel less alone.” That’s why I make art. I like connecting with other people and sharing experiences and creating community. There’s something for everyone on this album. I talk about family bullshit, heartbreak, activism, but also things everyone can relate to, like having a crush on someone or breakups. It touches on a lot of different types of human emotion.
What songs are you excited for people to hear that aren’t out yet at this point?
I’m really stoked for people to hear “Don’t Make Me Cry,” which is about the effects of divorce and family relationships, and how our insecurities and relationship difficulties are influenced by the relationships we saw growing up. It’s the first time I’ve really talked about that in a song. I’m talking about my grandparents and my parents and all this stuff. That song feels really fresh for me. It feels different from anything I’ve put out before. There’s also a song called “Blue Sky” that opens the record that’s very euphoric, like running-through-fields vibes. There’s a song called “Lifestyle” that I think is going to be really fun live because there are lyrics I can imagine people screaming back. It’s fun thinking about how people will connect with each song differently.
Can you talk a little bit about “Romantic Sadness?"
It’s interesting because we were filming visualizers for songs and it was supposed to be a different single. Then five minutes before, I was like, “It has to change. It has to be ‘Romantic Sadness.’” I called my manager and he agreed immediately, so we changed the plan last minute. I really love this song. It was inspired by a conversation with my younger sister, who’s a huge influence in my life and my best friend. She speaks so poetically about life. She was talking to me about heartbreak and how it’s really hard when you run out of the energy to romanticize your sadness and you just feel like shit. I was like, wow, that’s such a cool way to say that. Because in order to cope with hard things — especially heartbreak — we desperately try to romanticize it in between feeling depressed. I really enjoyed making this song. It’s kind of like Taylor Swift meets MUNA production, and it was just a real belter to make.
There’s a lyric on that one I love — “dramatic and ecstatic like a Robyn song.”
Oh, thank you. I was thinking about "Dancing On My Own" and how I’ve definitely romanticized sadness through songs like that. There was a breakup-song club night in London called “You Suck” that I used to go to all the time with my friends, and they played “Dancing On My Own” every single time. I remember going while actually going through a breakup, and when that song came on I’d be like, “Yes, I am dancing on my own.” It helped me romanticize feeling sad. So I was like, I have to get that feeling in there somewhere.
Isn't It Romantic is out tomorrow, and you can catch girli on tour in your city below!
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