Clean Teen
It’s a Thursday afternoon in Paris, and Mandy Moore has been working frantically for 63 days without a break. She flew into Paris on Wednesday morning, did interviews with European media all day, and started again first thing the next morning. By 4.30 she’s ready for the UK. Mandy appears: tall, blonde, cat-like slim, dressed in vintage black jeans. She chats. She sings unaccompanied – a strong voice and perfectly in tune.
She does our photo session, and then the interview that follows. It wraps up at 7pm, but Mandy has two more photo sessions for European publications. Tomorrow it will be the same, all day. Then she’ll be on a plane to New Zealand, from where she flies to Australia before strating a tour of the Far East.
Mandy Moore turned 16 on April 10. She was fifteen when I interviewed her. She was fourteen when she recorded her first album, So Real, which has already sold a million copies in the US and is about to be launched in the UK. It’s impossible to put a figure on what Mandy has earned, but she’s certainly becoming a multi-million business.
She’s the latest American uber-teen to ride the trail first blazed by Britney Spears and Christine Aguilera. Mandy’s just as cute, just as talented, just as eerily professional. The difference lies in the marketing. Mandy’s being sold as a younger, fresher, cleaner alternative. Mandy says, ‘The message I want to send out is that wearing a T-shirt and a pair of jeans can be just as beautiful as wearing a mini-skirt and a tight tube-top. You just have to go ahead and be yourself.’
So, to sum up: Mandy Moore is tall, slim, beautiful, sings like an angel and works the camera like a veteran. But there’s no denying she’s still a kid. She tells me she wants to buy a new cuddly toy before she leaves for New Zealand because ‘I’m probably going to need something on the plane. We have a 22 hour flight. I’m, like, so-o-o dreading it.’
Most of her friends are the same as ever. But not all: ‘There are people who say, “Mandy never contacts me. She’s mean. She’s totally changed.”’ It’s different with boys too. ‘I’m sure a couple of guys liked me, but I wasn’t a popular girl. Now they’re, like, “So, Mandy – next time you’re in town, maybe we could catch a movie or something.” And I’m like, “Whatever – you didn’t like me before: I’m not so different now.”
Mandy’s idea of the perfect boyfriend is a nice guy who isn’t in the business. She, though, dreams of being another Madonna: in her 40s and still at the top of the tree. If that doesn’t work out, then she’d like to go to college in New York. She’s always enjoyed schoolwork, particularly English. ‘There are so many other things out there that I want to do still. I want to be a journalist. I want to travel the world – not that I’m not doing that now!’
David Thomas, Daily Telegraph Magazine