Grace VanderWaal Religion

What religion is Grace VanderWaal?

Grace VanderWaal is an American singer and songwriter who identifies as a Christian. She was raised in the Methodist faith. In a 2016 tweet, she directly confirmed, “Yes, I am Methodist, and my church home has been a huge support system.”

VanderWaal rose to prominence after winning America’s Got Talent in 2016 at the age of 12. Her victory led to a recording contract with Columbia Records and the release of Perfectly Imperfect, which became the best-selling debut EP in the United States that year. She followed with the studio albums Just the Beginning (2017) and Childstar in 2025. Her live career includes headline tours across North America, performances at Madison Square Garden, the Austin City Limits Music Festival, and the Special Olympics World Winter Games, as well as touring with Imagine Dragons and Florence and the Machine. She expanded into acting by starring in Disney’s Stargirl (2020) and its sequel Hollywood Stargirl (2022).

VanderWaal has received the Billboard Women in Music Rising Star Award, two Radio Disney Music Awards, a Teen Choice Award, and the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Push Act. She has also been recognized on Billboard’s 21 Under 21 list multiple times and became the youngest musician included in Forbes 30 Under 30, reflecting her influence as both a recording artist and performer.

Early life

Grace VanderWaal was born on January 15, 2004, in Lenexa, Kansas, and later moved with her family to Suffern, New York, where she grew up as the youngest of three children in a household of parents Tina and David VanderWaal, with one brother and one sister. From around age 3, she began writing and singing songs, drawing early songwriting inspiration from movies by imagining what characters were feeling. At age 11, she saved her own birthday money to buy her first ukulele after watching a Brazilian au pair play and seeing a Twenty One Pilots video on YouTube, teaching herself to play through online tutorials. She began performing at open mic nights at the Bean Runner Cafe in Peekskill, New York, in July 2015 and uploaded original songs and covers to her YouTube channel.

After winning America’s Got Talent in 2016, she transitioned to homeschooling and online courses before attending public school part-time, graduating from Laurel Springs School in 2022.

AGT breakthrough

VanderWaal auditioned for season 11 of America’s Got Talent on March 4, 2016, performing her original song “I Don’t Know My Name” at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Judge Howie Mandel awarded her the Golden Buzzer, sending her directly to the live shows. She performed original songs throughout the competition and won the season on September 14, 2016, becoming the second female winner and only the second child act to win the show in its history. She took home the $1 million prize and a three-night headline engagement at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Simon Cowell called her the next Taylor Swift during the competition.

Early music and albums

Shortly after her AGT victory, VanderWaal signed with Columbia Records and released her debut EP Perfectly Imperfect in December 2016, which included original tracks such as “I Don’t Know My Name,” “Beautiful Thing,” “Gossip Girl,” and other songs that had already been performed on AGT or written during her early career, and the EP debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, an uncommon achievement for a middle schooler at the time. Her debut studio album, Just the Beginning, followed on November 3, 2017, debuting at number 22 on the Billboard 200, with lead single “Moonlight” accumulating over 20 million streams worldwide ahead of the album’s release. She conducted her own Just the Beginning Tour in 2017, toured with Imagine Dragons on their Evolve World Tour in 2018, and, in 2019, opened for Florence and the Machine before headlining her own Ur So Beautiful Tour.

VanderWaal’s second EP, Letters Vol. 1, was released in 2019, featuring the singles “Waste My Time” and “I Don’t Like You.” She has performed at Madison Square Garden, the Austin City Limits Music Festival, and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria.

Acting career

VanderWaal made her acting debut starring as Susan “Stargirl” Caraway in the Disney+ musical drama film Stargirl, released on March 13, 2020. She contributed original songs to the film’s soundtrack, including “Today and Tomorrow.” She reprised the role of Carol in the sequel Hollywood Stargirl in 2022, which follows her protagonist as she navigates high school life and the music scene in Los Angeles. More recently, she appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s sci-fi epic Megalopolis in 2024, playing the teen pop star Vesta Sweetwater in a film that also starred Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, and Nathalie Emmanuel. She also sang “The Impossible Dream” at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2024.

Musical evolution

VanderWaal released her second full-length studio album, Childstar, in April 2025 through Columbia Records. The project blends introspective lyrics with cinematic production and marks a significant shift from her early ukulele-driven folk-pop sound toward a more mature pop and indie aesthetic. V Magazine described her 2022 single “Lion’s Den” as “a resounding cry for her generation.” She followed Childstar with the Childstar Tour beginning in May 2025. She has been named to Billboard’s 21 Under 21 list five times between 2016 and 2021 and is the youngest person ever included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Music list. She also received the 2017 Billboard Women in Music Rising Star Award and the 2018 MTV Europe Music Award for Best Push Act.

Personal life

VanderWaal has kept her personal life largely private. She has spoken openly about the mental health challenges that came with finding fame at age 12, describing the experience in a 2022 interview as having “mental repercussions,” including depression and exposure to harsh social media criticism. Her family relocated from New York to South Carolina after selling their Suffern home.