When Adri Maiella was a kid, she had a bright pink diary that only opened with a voice-activated password. Growing up in early-2000s New Jersey, she filled those pages with private musings on crushes, heartbreak, insecurity, and identity, hiding her voice behind lock and key.

Today, that voice-activated password is screenager — a COVID-era songwriting project that has evolved into one of the East Coast’s most exciting rock bands.

Fronted by Maiella and backed by New York-based drummer Immanuell Pennington (Lowertown), guitarist Ian Eylanbekov (Snail Mail), and bassist Cameron Bash, the band has become a fixture at Brooklyn and New Jersey clubs like Baby’s All Right and the Meat Locker. With their arresting blend of Y2K nostalgia, Midwest emo-tinged rock, and brutally honest songwriting, screenager is proof that raw, home-grown authenticity is alive and well in an increasingly manufactured music industry.

“I decided to start treating my songs like diary entries about my own feminine experience,” explains Maiella. “Growing up, I had a bright pink diary I treated like an extension of myself, always telling the truth even when it was ugly. I tried to tap back into that mindset with my songwriting, allowing myself to say exactly what I wanted to regardless of who would hear it.”

The result is the band’s second EP Pixel Perfect (Rose Garden), a collection of intimately crafted songs magnified by guitar-forward, cavernous rock band arrangements. Maiella’s delicate vocals make you feel like you’re in on a secret, a trusted confidante hearing their most agreeable friend decide they’re done taking bullshit. On lead single “Rockstar,” she sings about destroying a condescending ex’s precious record collection; on “Three of Me,” she laments the losing battle to meet society’s impossible expectations of young women. “What am I reinventing / By sucking in my stomach? / Avoiding my reflection / In the glass til I forget it.”

The music courses with the self-effacing angst of suburban young adulthood — how do you balance your heartbreak with your anger? How do you build a meaningful life in a world that asks you to outsource your sense of self to the digital ether? There are echoes of everything from Mazzy Star and the 1975 to Soccer Mommy and early Avril Lavigne, but no influence eclipses Maiella’s singular voice: one she has worked hard to cultivate and isn’t afraid to use.

“I wanted this collection of songs to say to other young women that there is beauty and courage in falling apart,” says Maiella. “Let go of the expectations yourself and others have set for you, and don’t be afraid to burn things to the ground just to see what's left when the dust settles.”