Could Tinker Bell be a teenage girl?

It’s an October evening and indie-pop singer/songwriter Luca is sitting in a fairy-lit dorm room on the other side of my Zoom screen. Since discovering the singer’s music in 2021, I have deduced that this is her ultimate setting. Three years ago, a sixteen-year-old Luca filmed a TikTok in a similarly lit bedroom singing, “A photo of the happy couple/I think it’s funny that the maid of honor took that photo, cause it was almost me…” The video quickly garnered almost 30 thousand likes. The song, “Pretty in White” was released in March 2022, shortly after the release of Luca’s debut single “Habits” (2021) (which Maisie Peters, one of Luca’s favorite singers, complimented). “Pretty in White”, is now Luca’s second most popular song on Spotify, “That's (one of) my favorite songs that I've written… I think that's gonna be a song that a lot of people go back to.”

        She loves artists like Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams, who are known for their lyrical strength and massive fanbases. Luca never explicitly says it, but I can sense that even the small touch of having a song people go back to is immeasurable as a fangirl. As she continuously says, “That’s enough for me”.

Luca at Taylor Swift's Eras Tour

Luca debuted on TikTok in January 2021, saying her goal was to open for Taylor Swift. On November 19th, she opened for Forest Blakk in Washington DC. One step closer to Taylor! In the future, she hopes to headline shows, make a professional music video, work with her idols, and release a full-length album. “I'm (not) preoccupied with, like, ‘I want this level (of) fame’” she explains, “I don't ever want to compromise (the) authenticity of the music I'm making for something else.”

Authentically, Luca practically breathes lyrics. I mention how amazing the unabashed sass is in Gracie Abrams’ new deluxe track, “That’s So True”. Luca quickly fires, “That is so true. She just spoke facts through that whole song.” I’m not surprised to hear a joke like this from any teenage girl. Luca explains, “I am literally just like you… I feel like the things I go through aren't that special… I've been there too.”

Luca is a big mental health advocate, “There's (that) cliche of… ‘you're not alone’. But I really do feel like… (knowing) someone out there has been through (something you're also going through)… can ground you and make you realize… this is not the end of the world, even if it feels like it is.” Singing and songwriting are her equivalent of journaling. Her openness about her mental health is not because her art wouldn’t be the same without it. It’s because it’s raw and helps people.

“Fade”, released in 2022, is a prime example, “It's from the perspective of… somebody else, like, looking at you (as you struggle).” The song contains one of my all-time favorite lines, “If this love was enough, I’d swear that you’d be fine/give you everything until I’m bleeding dry”. I tell Luca how much I resonate with it and her smile is euphoric.

A fan-made hat

That feeling of successful emotional resonation drives her. She excitedly tells me about fans Giulz and Lily who drove four hours to a recent Baltimore show. They’d made a cowboy hat (pictured above) bedazzled with Luca’s name and the show date. She hung out with Giulz’s family before the show. “(It’s) so crazy… (they’re really) great”, Luca gushes. They came to the Forest Blakk show too.

When listing songs on the setlist, she first names “Tinkerbell” (2024), a platonic love song she hadn’t expected to release until it did well on TikTok. Recounting the writing experience, “(My friend lived) upstairs from me and I texted her. I was like, ‘I wrote a song about you… Can I come play it?’… (Afterward) she was like, ‘Hug me’, we were crying.” Luca didn’t ever expect to release “Tinkerbell”, but she ended up recording it with London-based producer Josh Northwood. It dropped last month, shortly after her track, “Yours First”.

The single cover for "Tinkerbell"

Luca’s debut EP maybe you were never mine (2024) preceded this. Luca had a goal of creating an EP, but it came together almost accidentally, “I wanted it to be a project that was… cohesive and (self-representative)… But I also wanted it to be… a new step.” First came the title track. She recorded the piano track in the studio and knew it was the title. “Love Again” followed, written the day before its studio session. After writing “Happier”, she couldn’t not release it. “Bitter” was, “a petty anthem… (In the studio), we were like, ‘You know what this is? This is a rock song.” Luca summarizes the record as representative of the five stages of grief, which I think is the most quintessential teenage girl move ever, in the best way possible.

The maybe you were never mine album cover

Luca is collaborating with Brandy Melville after these releases and her Forest Blakk show. In January, she’ll be going to New York City to record three songs in outfits from the trendy store with instruments and a professional engineer. The resulting mini project, she jokes, will be dubbed, “The Brandy Melville Adventure”. She’ll also be releasing “Starving” soon – a track she’s been teasing. Then will come either a longer EP or a full-length album.

While these aspects of Luca’s life are unusual, she’s a normal teenage girl. She’s in school to be a doctor while pursuing her singer/songwriter dream on the side, a very common path. She explains that she doesn’t believe in sacrificing one passion for another, “If you love (something), you’ll find time to do it”. Luca grew up in a household of doctors and views helping people as incredibly important. Thus, she uses both music and medicine as important outlets.

Luca with her family at high school graduation

Luca approaches her values in more than one way, resonates with her listeners, and generally pursues anything she finds joy in with massive drive. She’s an extremely talented fangirl. Everything she creates is so special and talking with her made me feel even more inspired than I’d been in my three years keeping up with her. Now entering the world of popular store collaborations and opening for bigger artists, Luca isn’t going away. 

You can find Luca online at @lucadorotovics and sign up for her Patreon to hear unreleased demos at: https://patreon.com/lucadorotovics?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink