How’s a kid in junior high from rural Iowa supposed to come up with one of the best things I’ve heard this decade? And then, where’s someone like that get the resources to do this in the first place? According to Bridget Bell, fresh off her first EP ‘Forgive and Forget’, it all comes down to staying real and being a part of a nurturing creative community.

At the age of 12, she employs the bravery to show up and play her originals on the ukulele at an open mic night at Slow Down Coffee Co. which is hosted by Rachel Gulick – the executive director of Girls Rock! Des Moines. Allegra Hernandez who is the Director at GR!T Records (Girls Rock Informational Technologies) accompanies appearances at this event.

Ten years ago girls, women, nonbinary, and trans youth and adults sought to empower themselves through musical self-expression founded Girls Rock! Des Moines. Upon discovering GR!DSM, Bell enrolled in their summer camp in 2023 and became immediately captivated. Besides the summer camp, the organization runs a community band throughout the year focusing a range of activities from enhancing live performance abilities to acquiring skills for organizing DIY shows.

“I had made a lot of friends during that time,” said Bell. “I did a group performance as my first step to becoming part of the community band with them. Doing Girls Rock! activities really makes you feel like anything is possible.

Not very different, it seems. Bridget Bell's passion for music began at the age of six when she was first given piano lessons by her grandfather. At 11, after mastering covers on his ukulele, he started venturing into songwriting, inspired by his interest in writing poetry and stories. In December 2023, I got my ‘self-made' guitar just to sound a bit less pure and young as the compositions played were on ukuleles.

I have one very strong artistic influence since Bell said, “Since I was around 5 or 6, the artist I have always admired is Taylor Swift.” Family-wise, I’m still really close to my dad, so he’s always going to be that guiding light, in whatever decisions I make. She’s actually my idol because she has been my biggest inspiration; she started writing songs at such a young age, just piano and guitar like me.

Reading through Rob Sheffield’s brilliant new book, ‘Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music,’ I found this passage which I had to pass on to Bell. Here, Sheffield writes of attending a Taylor Swift concert in 2011 and being extremely bowled over. He just couldn’t stop raving about it, telling everyone within earshot, “Ten years from now, my favorite music will be coming from these girls. The ones who saw this show or heard these songs on the radio, heard this voice tell them ‘Drop everything now.’ They heard her and felt they had to do it themselves. And so it was.

"I totally get that," Bell said. “I’m definitely one of those girls who was inspired by Taylor Swift. I mean, what she devotes to the music is incredible. To see someone be that passionate just makes you wanting to create music yourself. She really has me developing this far from a singular angle, a la ‘barnswallow’ which is done from my friend’s perspective. Plus, I got a few other songs going centered on made-up people.”

Swift stands out as a cultural and economic force separate from punk rock, but there is a strong case to be made for her status as a DIY icon. She inspires artists like Bell to find their voice in the same way the Slits and Raincoats helped empower previous generations emerging from underground music scenes.

In early 2025, the forgive and forget album was unleashed upon the world by GR!T Records, a veritable cornucopia of Bell's singular brand of guitar-pop. On ‘some old bird’, at times it veers towards the confessional in content, from lines such as “my ephemeral love for some old bird” to “I haven’t seen you in forever so I’ll see you in your dreams.”

Add to this Bell’s gift for catchy tunes, and the cocktail is universal fodder for pretty much anyone and everyone.” She explains that ‘forgive and forget’ deals with ‘letting go of toxic relationships and knowing when to forgive people even if they’ve never asked for forgiveness.’ With the help of Girls Rock!, Bell was able to convert her middle school agony and frustration into five memorable tracks that are now available on streaming platforms for the world to relish.

"The middle school that I go to, Southeast Polk Junior High, feels nothing like Girls Rock!," Bell said. "At Girls Rock!, I've got people around me who are interested in the same kind of music and going through the same kind of stuff. It really feels like a safe place where I can pick up a mic and just sing. I don’t keep back my thoughts on songs and lyrics or even on approaching other people for friendship.”

The Bridget Bell at Girls Rock! is very different from the one who steps into Southeast Polk. She comes from a conservative, rural area with a strong group of friends from school because most of her classmates do not really understand the difficulties of pursuing music and are rather dismissive of artistic endeavors like putting out an EP.

Throughout the recording of "forgive and forget," the six Girls Rock! campers undertook many musical activities involved creating instrumental parts for different instruments, setting up, and interfacing equipment, and interacting with digital recording software. "I was just with a group of other teens," Bell said. “We were in the studio all day figuring out how to make music, and after a day, I’d be able to sing one song by myself. It was awesome. They’re excellent at instruction.

Great Records director Allegra Hernandez spearheaded the sessions, producing five songs in five days with an able crew of volunteers and staff members.
Team recording all the way, everyone on it in full support, coming together to bring Bell’s musical vision to life from the ground up.

“It wasn’t just Bridget,” Hernandez said. “Every character had their big moment, and Bridget really needed everybody at the camp. But what impressed me more was the vision–she’s the kind of girl whom you can have listen to a bass track that’s being recorded and she’ll say, ‘Oh that doesn’t fit to what I’m playing,’ still resolute in her own artistic direction.

In “3,727,” Bell shows off her quirky songwriting style sparked by a plane ride to visit the subject of the song. It’s hard not to appreciate how she weaves an infectious melody around a multi-syllabic, complex chorus (“there’s three thousand two hundred seventy-eight miles between us / but only one step away from something new”).

"Numbers in this song I funneled to the title," Bell said “For… ‘Four to finally fall asleep when I’m thinking about ya / but only one to write another song about you.’ This particular song is with one guy in mind: in fact, most of my songs are for the same individual.”

While my formative years were spent hawking vinyl at stores in the aughts, and I’ve eked out a living through music writing – I’m sure I’ve listened to some, well, many tens of thousands of albums. Being the man who’s had “Forgive and Forget” on heavy rotation for the last month, I can definitely say that it’s one of the few things in 54 years that consistently brings me equal pleasure with almost anything, and I’m hot to trot for anything more Bell has to offer.

“I'll catch myself listening to pop sometimes, but mostly indie. I’ll go through phases of being into rock and alternative,” said Bell, who until recently was practicing with the GR!DM collective on performing Hole’s “Doll Parts.” Hernandez went on to say, “Bridget told me that she is starting to really dig Hole and is very impressed with Courtney Love’s voice and songwriting.

“I just met Hole at Girls Rock! camp,” Bell said. “While Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan would be my main inspirations, I have really come to like Courtney Love—her voice, her music. I really love Hole.
‘‘I’m happy to report that the kids are all right once again.’’