Today we’d like to introduce you to MEANGIRL.
Hi MEANGIRL, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
MEANGIRL was born in the dark warehouses of Brooklyn, New York from a place of loss and healing. I had moved from Denver to NYC in July 2024 after my relationship with my ex-fiance fell apart and a year later I lost my youngest sibling to a freak semi accident in May 2025. I was partying to distract myself and numb the pain. It was fun, fueled by grief, but some of the most fun I’ve ever had was in that haze of pain and sadness on the dance floor. The anonymity of the city afforded me the chance to both lose myself and my broken soul, but also to find things I’d never looked for.
Music had always been a major part of my life. I studied music and dance at Wichita State from 2015 to 2018, attempted a career in concert dance and musical theatre but it never really felt true to me. The performance of someone else’s words and movement felt like a far cry from the artist I considered myself to be. When I moved to Denver in January of 2019 I swore off performing. I took a string of odd jobs including a year long stint as a morticians apprentice when I first moved to the city and eventually found myself in nonprofit fundraising and philanthropy which I stayed in for five years working with local, state, and national organizations until that feeling of performing someone else’s words and movement crept back up. Before MEANGIRL, I lacked purpose. I lacked courage. I was trying to fit into a predetermined shape, the future that had be outlined for me by my family, my peers, and a society that rewards inauthenticity.
Losing my brother and my presumed lifelong partner in the span of a year changed my life. The most powerful teachers are often our own experiences. The love that I had for my ex fiancé and the dreams I had of a lifetime with my favorite sibling found themselves cut short with nowhere to go. I was alone, not physically but emotionally, in one of the biggest cities in the world. So I started living for me.
I thought that’s what I was doing when I began medically transitioning from male to female in 2022, but again the desire to be an “acceptable” form of woman leaves no room for mean girls. Women are told, both consciously and unconsciously, to look and act a certain way and reward for completing the farce, as fed to us by society, is love and acceptance. Conditional acceptance, but acceptance nonetheless. I had tried that. I was a “good” transsexual. I had a collegiate education, passed in physical appearance, lived a life in service to others…box after box was checked including the one marked “Living life in pursuit of acceptance from others”.
So I stopped. I stopped trying to be perfect, stopped running from my fears, stopped waiting for permission or hoping that someone would save me from myself. On a dimly lit foggy dance floor in Brooklyn, I found both MEANGIRL and Sala. I found my soul and the spark of creativity that I had set down so long ago. I don’t remember the first person who suggested that I become a DJ. I’m sure it was a flippant half-jest made by one of my friends in my New York circle but that thought never left my mind after the first time it was placed there. I had a background in music, thought I possessed taste, and after more than a decade spent on dance floors in queers clubs across the country I know what people like from a night out. The puzzle pieces started to come together. I jokingly suggested the name MEANGIRL, a tongue in cheek nod to words that had been used both in Denver and New York to assail my character but like with most jokes there was a grain of truth. I felt like a mean girl for being selfish, for chasing my dreams, for prioritizing myself. Boundaries felt foreign because all I’d done was repeatedly self abandon.
In October of 2025 I was visiting my friends in Denver for a Halloween event when I broke down and told them I didn’t want to go back to New York. My contract at my job there had ended and I was ready to try something different. I was ready to stop running and come back to where it had all began.
These moments of vulnerability, of honesty with myself and my chosen family, are the cornerstone of my DJ career. Instead of being met with criticism or refutation, I was met with curiosity and support. I got a surprise after moving back, my roommate had bought me a laptop just for DJing and music production and several of my longest friends had pooled money together to get me my first DJ deck (shoutout the FLX4). In December of 2025 I started teaching myself how to DJ using YouTube videos. I treated it like a job, spending 8 hours a day practicing, learning, and sourcing music. It was so refreshing to be able to have the freedom and support to immerse myself in this new beginning. For Christmas, my friend who is one of the managers at Denver’s best queer club, surprised me with a four hour slot for my debut set at the end of January. It’s important that people understand the impact that my community has had on my success. From the very beginning this wouldn’t have happened the way it has without my people pulling together to create the opportunities for me to show up and be successful. There’s no room for ego in the machine that brought MEANGIRL to life. It’s been a group project. Community and support got me into the room. Hard work, consistency, and high quality local artistry is what has kept me there.
After my debut set, which proved that I had the chops and the skills, gigs started flowing in. I remember telling my friends at the beginning of this journey that it was going to be a slow burn, and it will, but we have gone from three gigs a month to 8-9 gigs a month and opening for nationally recognized touring artists in less than four months. I am so proud of the work all of us on the MEANGIRL team have put in. We’ve turned a dream into reality and the best part was doing it alongside my dearest friends for the incredible community here in Denver. After my debut I said “You all are helping my dream come true” and those words ring more true every day. I may call myself MEANGIRL, but I am filled with love and gratitude. Oh, and I don’t take requests, because being a little mean (in the DJ booth) never killed anybody.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There’s nothing smooth about a creative career. I have been onstage playing for a packed venue and the power cuts out 30 minutes before my set ends. What do you do at times like that? For MEANGIRL, you sing Jingle Bell rock like in the classic hit movie and laugh it off until the power comes back. There’s also a lot operational struggle that comes with managing a packed calendar and team of five. Earlier I said that the cornerstone of our success as a team is meeting these moments of hardship with honesty and communication. There are, pardon my country proverb, a thousand ways to skin a cat and my way may not always be the best. That’s also why there’s no room for ego, because if you marry your identity to a specific outcome, especially in the music and entertainment industry, you won’t last.
There’s also, personally for myself, creative struggles. Some days I’m filled with inspiration and can’t wait to get to work on realizing my ideas or cultivating my sonic landscape for my debut single and upcoming EP (I say upcoming but the single is out late August and the EP comes out this winter), and other days I feel my brain running on empty unable to quite figure out how to start or end. I think as an artist the ultimate goal is to be able to turn it on and off like a faucet. To figure out your creative flow rhythm and be able to tap into it at will. I’m still so new in the game that I’m figuring that out as I go.
One last struggle, or rather lesson I’m learning currently is “get it in writing.” so much get’s said but it doesn’t always materialize and that where getting it in ink is paramount. Whether working with friends, venues, or booking agents always get it in writing. You won’t be sorry and it’ll save you time and money in the long run to have documentation.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
MEANGIRL is no stranger to nightlife, but only recently has she begun to cement her status as one of the city’s most compelling rising forces in a scene filled with talent. From her resident DJ spot at one of the best queer bars in Denver, X Bar, to her bi-monthly solo production NIGHTSHIFT at Goldfinch on South Broadway, to guest appearances at PlayHaus, Yes Sir, Afterglow, Pulse Controlled, and beyond, she’s proving time and time again that she knows exactly what she’s doing—and the dance floor feels it.
Cutting her teeth on the Brooklyn techno scene, MEANGIRL brings an unmistakable East Coast edge to every set. Equal parts grit, precision, and controlled chaos. That influence pulses through her selections: high-impact, genre-blurring, and unapologetically driving. Her sound resists easy categorization, weaving techno, house, bass, jersey club, breakbeat, trance, and more into something both confrontational and deeply magnetic.
Behind the decks, she commands with intention. There’s no fluff, no filler, just relentless energy and a sharp instinct for movement. MEANGIRL doesn’t just read a room; she reshapes it, pushing bodies past hesitation and into full release. What starts as curiosity quickly turns into surrender, as even the most stubborn crowds find themselves locked into her rhythm. With a growing reputation for sets that feel as unique and immersive as they are unrelenting, MEANGIRL is carving out a lane that’s entirely her own. One built on instinct, intensity, and an unwavering commitment to the dance floor.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Networking and mentors are such a huge part of any creative career. I come back to the advice Issa Rae delivered in an interview once about working with the people across from you. So many people try to network up and that’s all fine and dandy but the best networks are the people in the trenches right beside you. The ones also investing in their career in the same ways you are. Collaborate with them, show up and support them, and set aside time outside of work to get to know them as people. These are the connections that will reap the most benefit in the long run.
As far as mentors go, that’s where you want to look up, so to speak. Find people that are doing the things you want to do and talk to them. Ask them questions, show up for their sets or productions and think critically about what you would do differently. These scenes, especially here in Denver, are not as big as you think they are but cold emails are a thing of the past. If you’re not immersing yourself and showing you’re willing to do the work, why would a mentor worth their salt take you seriously? I didn’t get a lot of time DJing for my mentor, who is a producer of the event PlayHaus and an incredible techno DJ by the name Brok, until recently because I wanted to show him through my actions that I was serious about making this a career. I taught myself how to record and upload my own mixes to SoundCloud and other social platforms, I taught myself the foundational skills for being a competent DJ, and when it was time to get serious about going to the next level I was direct in what I wanted. This much time every couple weeks, working on these specific skills, getting to watch how he runs his events, etc. Know what you want and know what you need, but that only happens when you put the work in first.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meangirl_machine/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@meangirl_machine
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/meangirlmachine
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@meangirl_machine
