Before the Bloom: Thoughts on a crisis of identity

‘Before the Bloom’ was the second show of Maisie Peters that I attended and was the second night of three pop shows across the world to celebrate her third album’s release in 2026. Maisie Peters is known for her lyrics that capture her authentic feelings about life, death and feeling invisible in this world. Her most recent release “Audrey Hepburn” explores feelings of identity. 

‘You look like Audrey Hepburn tonight,’ touches on thematics that resonate with my life; hearing those lyrics at Maisie’s sold out show in the Earth Theatre was life changing. Audrey Hepburn was an actress that performed in movies such as Breakfast At Tiffany’s; Hepburn was known in particular for how well she adopted different personas for different roles. 

As I am neurodivergent there is a difference between adapting and adopting a personality that doesn’t fit the norms of society. This difference is prevalent in every single interaction that I have ever had. None more so than the recent friendship break-ups that have accumulated in the past few years. 

But in the death of the friendship is there anything more we can do but change? 

Change is a concept that I have struggled with and yet these recent breakups have taught me to be strong in the face of tough times. When reflecting on the lyric, ‘you look like Audrey Hepburn tonight,’ Maisie and Audrey’s aesthetics are not similar. This difference in appearance between Audrey and Maisie makes the lyric resonate with me because we can appear to be one thing to ourselves but one completely different identity to the outside world. 

This difference is a haunting; a crack in our identities. How can we be one part of ourselves to the world and then have a further part of ourselves that we keep repressed? In this world we are fragments of the same fixture, a whole different person depending upon who we are with and where we are located. In this world, nothing is as it seems and seeing Maisie battle with her own identity invites you to question: who are we really? We are at the core of our own earths, yet we are twisting our identities into a patchwork quilt. Because at the end of the day, looking like Audrey Hepburn should not be the standard that Maisie holds herself to. 

She should be Maisie Peters, just as I should always be my true authentic self before, during and after the bloom.

Cover image courtesy of Maisie Peters.