Dear Young Rocker

Chelsea has a transformative experience as a mentor and music teacher at a week of Girls Rock Camp. Her band of high schoolers causes her to feel protective and to show up for them in ways she didn’t think she could. There is a challenge, though, with the vocalist of her band - a shy kid who reminds her of herself and seems like she might not be able to work up the courage to sing before the big performance at the end of the week. ...

In this installment, Chelsea deals with a lot of change at once. The confusion and pain of her first major heartbreak is followed by an ambivalent graduation from college. But she experiences some good change too, and it all starts with a Craigslist ad. Older Chelsea’s advice centers on bands, moms, and what it means to be wild - but fragile. For more visit dearyoungrocker.com and follow @dearyoungrocker on instagram.

Chelsea experiences what feels like destiny when she runs into a crush in the most romantic way possible. An intense relationship develops between the pair, who happen to have a large age difference between them. The new boyfriend makes it clear that for Chelsea, playing music still won’t be on the table in the near future. For more visit dearyoungrocker.com and follow @dearyoungrocker on instagram.

Sometimes running away from your problems is actually the right thing to do. Chelsea spends a summer living on the beach on Martha’s Vineyard in a cottage with no TV, internet, or cell service. She gets an inside look at how the other half lives by becoming a maid for billionaires in their summer homes and parties with their kids at night. Part healing journey and part distraction, it’s both a summer to remember and a way to forget...

Chelsea meets a friend in German class and struggles to live up to her new self-imposed expectations as a writer. She lets music fall by the wayside but uses her creativity to instead plan an escape from a lingering toxic relationship. This week’s advice letter focuses on taking pressure off of yourself in order to reach your full potential as a creator. For more, visit dearyoungrocker.com and follow @dearyoungrocker on instagr...

A teacher takes an interest in Chelsea and gives her some feedback that rocks her world. She also does some jamming: by herself, with a new potential band, and with her friend at the world headquarters of noodling - Guitar Center. Old Chelsea doles out some advice about making it through the ‘boring parts’ of life. For more visit dearyoungrocker.com and follow @dearyoungrocker on instagram.

With no music in her life for the foreseeable future, Chelsea has found a way to fill the hole in her life by getting more deeply involved with the yoga classes she’s been attending. She has a life altering emotional experience at an intensive workshop, but upon reflection realizes how scary it really was. For more, visit dearyoungrocker.com and follow @dearyoungrocker on instagram.

Choosing a major, or sticking with one, can be pretty stressful. Chelsea decides to take a break from thinking about it and joins a new yoga class instead. She feels great for the first time in a while, and more importantly, feels like she knows exactly where she wants to be for once. Older Chelsea reminds her again that there is no perfect choice and that the belief in one existing is what’s causing her existential dread in the fi...

In the Season 2 premiere of Dear Young Rocker, we find young Chelsea where we left her - in college as a sound recording technology major. She falls in love with editing tape but starts getting distracted by self-comparison and ‘extra-curricular activities.’ She wants to make only perfect choices, but older Chelsea lets her know that’s just not realistic. For more visit dearyoungrocker.com and follow @dearyoungrocker on instagr...

Dear Young Rocker Season 2 launches August 26th, 2020. Tune in for a raw, honest, and strange story about finding yourself in your early 20's and a life-long relationship with music, along with some heartfelt advice along the way. This season will pick up right where Season 1 left off; Chelsea is in college trying to find her place in the world and figuring out what role music will play in her life. Make sure you're all cau...

Phil Spector: Murderer. Musical genius. His story is told from the perspective of those who knew him best, his famous so-called friends. Blood On The Tracks is part true crime, part historical fiction, part spoken word lo-fi beat noir brought to you by Jake Brennan, the host of the award winning music and true crime podcast, DISGRACELAND, featuring the fictionalized voices of Lenny Bruce, Ronnie Spector, Ike Turner, Debbie Harry an...

In this final episode of season one, young Chelsea starts coming up against some obstacles in her new chosen major of music and sound recording. She is feeling inadequate in her musical ability once again and it hinders her bonding with her classmates. Against her own instincts, she continues an internet-based relationship. Musician and poet Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz chimes in with a guest letter describing her own early songwri...

College is a time to try out different for yourself and Chelsea does just that with a 180 degree major switch from Biology to Music and Sound Recording Technology. Once again despite feeling in her heart that she's probably on the right path, outside factors threaten to scare her away from it before she even starts. Musician Ella Williams, known as Squirrel Flower (Polyvinyl Records) sends in a letter to her young musician self...

Young Chelsea's first semester of college is an adjustment and she isn't sure about being a biology major. She finds one person who "gets it" though she can't say the same for her roommate. She wonders if once again she's just surrounded by the wrong people, or is it her? Older Chelsea gives a brief explanation on consent in response to the actions of a creepy guy from orientation. Songwriter Stef Chura talk...

Chelsea presses pause on her own story and passes the mic to five other rockers. Members of the bands Palehound (Ellen Kempner and Larz Brogan), Summer Cannibals (Jess Boudreaux and Cassi Blum) and Worriers (Lauren Denitzio) add their own experiences to the collective Dear Young Rocker story of finding a voice in music, and give some straight-talking advice to their younger selves, such as to just “stick with it."

Senior year and graduation is cracked up to be the pinnacle of high school, but Chelsea isn't feeling much school spirit. She just wants out, and is looking forward to college but her cello teacher doesn't think music school is for her. She makes a painful decision to give up what she loves most. Without music, life is even more confusing and scary but older Chelsea reassures her that high school isn't everything and th...