Twenty-year-old, Alessia Cara has been keeping herself busy lately, with three hit singles receiving frequent airplay on mainstream radio, her most recent being "Scars to Your Beautiful." I've been following her peripherally, seeing stories about her on social media on occasion, and I'm quite impressed with her.

Her singing voice and talent as an artist are impressive enough, but she made headlines awhile back when she, along with Alecia Keys, attended the MTV Video Music Awards without any makeup. Displays of individuality like that have gained Cara a reputation for defying the norms.

Her individualistic nature seeps into her music as well. She exploded onto the scene with "Here," the quintessential anti-party anthem, from the perspective of someone at a party who doesn't want to be there. Her rambling style, slightly mirroring that of Ed Sheeran, encapsulates her disdain for this party of people submitting themselves to the influence of substances and paying little attention to her, except when they are boys who want to flirt with her.

That individuality comes out even more so in "Wild Things," which might be my favorite song by her, of the ones I've heard. This song is her middle finger to expectations of people to look and act a certain way, which exclude and ostracize those who don't. Her zeal is on full display in the chorus:

So hey, we brought our drum

And this is how we dance

No mistakin' , we make our breaks

If you don't like our 808s

Then leave us alone

'Cause we don't need your policies

We have no apologies for being

Find me where the wild things are

Listening to the chorus, performed so flawlessly by Cara, with her electrifying voice hitting you like a force, I cannot help but admire Cara's quiet defiance, displayed not only in this song, but in general. She is firm but never in-your-face, and is defiant in that she simply does what she likes, and refuses to let the norms of the music industry, or society, or anything else determine who she is, or who she wants to be.

She encourages other girls to do the same in her most recent single, "Scars to Your Beautiful," which I'm hearing a lot on mainstream radio at the moment. This song has a bit of a cliche "everyone is beautiful" vibe to it, but it communicates a message that many people still need to hear, especially young women who are bombarded daily with daunting beauty standards, to which they are pressured to conform. Indeed, Cara briefly touches on the subject of eating disorders in her song, which can be attributed to our society's unhealthy body standards.

Cara's songs are basically intended to give the outsiders in society something to relate to, to let them know that they are not alone, and that they shouldn't give up themselves for people to like them. It's a ubiquitous message, but its ubiquity doesn't change the fact that many people still need to her it.

Alessia Cara is here. And she is Alessia, whether you like it or not.