Girl group Boys World shares their latest obsessions, including Bada Lee, Petra Collins, perfectly cooked salmon, and manifestation.
For the past three years, Boys World have made moves as a modern-day pop group remixing the sounds and aesthetics of ’90s and 2000s-era R&B. The quintet’s new single, “Gone Girl,” comes on the heels of a national tour, during which the girls admitted they were too busy, you know, being pop stars to do much else.
“I haven’t watched shit, to be honest with you,” Makhyli confesses to Mashable when we ask for her recent watches, “The second I get home I just want to talk with these girls or knock the fuck out.”
But Boys World — Olivia, Lillian, Elana, Makhyli, and Queenie — deliver nonetheless, gushing for over an hour about their favorite artists, recipes, and online obsessions. These pop stars, it turns out, are the sweetest, most candid pop culture junkies around.
Olivia
Olivia: I’ve followed Petra Collins’ work for a while, and I think her visuals are always incredible. The way they executed this whole music video was just so refreshing and very pleasing to my eyes, and I love them working together. The Glee reference of a slushie being thrown on her… I love it when people use stuff that happened in movies and put it in music videos. I love the song. It grew on me a lot.
This is kind of rhetorical, but do you guys want to work with Petra Collins ever?
All: Yes!
Were you into Petra Collins when she was at Rookie?
Olivia: Yes! Rookie mag! I am so upset it’s gone. I have three copies of each volume of Rookie: two I cut up for my journals and one I didn’t touch.
Makhyli: She’s a big collector.
Olivia: You know Mini Brands? I love them! I collect the Disney ones, the food, the little fashion ones. I got so lucky, I got a bag with tiny makeup brushes and a blush. I also have a tiny grand piano on the shelf in our living room, and it has a little stool and sheet music and it opens up. It’s adorable.
What do you love about this Bodies Bodies Bodies edit?
Olivia: It’s one of my favorite movies of all time. I’ve gotten to the point where I can quote it like “Mean Girls.” All of Rachel [Sennott’s] lines, the way she delivered them, make me crack up every single time. If I was ever an actress, I would want to have that kind of role.
A lot of you acted as kids, right?
Makhyli: I did musical theater
Elana: I was on a show called SuperWings. And I was also on an American Girl doll YouTube show.
Olivia: We need to all act together.
Makhyli: To be on a show together in general.
Did you guys ever watch S Club 7? They were a British pop group that had their scripted TV show in the early 2000s.
Olivia: No! We’ve never heard of them.
I highly recommend it. Makhyli, what musicals were you into?
Makhyli: Everything. Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Dear Evan Hansen, Annie, Hamilton, Freckleface Strawberry.
Elana
Elana: I love SZA’s new music video.
Makhyli: Ah! I can’t even talk about it.
Elana: I love that album, that got me through winter. SZA has such a unique voice. She’s so talented, and I love her music. So I love watching her music videos. And this one features Justin Bieber.
Queenie: His fine ass.
Makhyli: He was my first CD.
Queenie: My ex-girlfriend has a blanket of him. She has a toothbrush that sings his songs.
Olivia, I read you ran a Dolan Twins Instagram fan page.
Olivia: Yeah, I would tweet as if I was this one pink hat they wore. And then the Dolan Twins were like, “Oh, this is cool.” They will notice me a lot, retweet my tweets, quote them, whatever. When they had a tour I went, and that’s when I was like, “OK, this is when I’m going to show my identity. I’m going to make this my moment. Today’s my reveal. I want you to know who the pink hat is. Now come find me.” And then they knew who I was. Then I started promoting my singing and covers to my fan page audience, and it turned into a career.
Elana: Ice Spice is doing so well. And her personality intrigues me. And she’s from New York. And I just love that. She seems so down to earth. So I was like, “Hey, why not put this on while I do my makeup?”
Queenie: Her personality is showing a lot more now.
Elana: She’s so cute, she seems sweet. I think we’d be friends. It’s so nice to see people around our age doing so well, it’s exciting. And I just like the way she talks, the sound of her voice. It reminds me of home because I’m from Queens. [In this interview] she talks about how she’s touring so much and she’s in different countries so it gets hard to stay in touch [with family and friends].
Do you guys relate to that?
Makhyli: Oh, yeah.
Elana: At the moment definitely [because we are on tour ourselves]. And we also live in LA and some of us have family in different places. So I relate to that.
Is there anything else you’ve been loving lately?
Elana: My favorite YouTuber right now is Monet McMichael. I freaking love her. I found her on TikTok, and now I watch her on YouTube. She should just she seems so sweet. I love to watch people and I’m like, “Oh, I probably would be friends with them.”
Queenie
Queenie: OK, so this salmon. We were preparing for our first week of tour rehearsals, and every day was, like, five hours. I was like, “OK, I need to meal prep.” And I also wanted to save a little bit of money so I wouldn’t have to order anything. I was just scrolling on TikTok, and I found this recipe. I have never made salmon, ever. And so I was like, “OK, fuck it. Let me try something.”
It took me three hours. I was just locked the fuck in — in the kitchen mashing the potatoes, putting it in the oven while setting up the oven, boiling it, and all of a sudden now the salmon’s sizzling, and now I have to make the soy glaze for it. I’m like a fucking chef running around. And then I keep forgetting things. When I tell you the best fucking salmon I ever ate in my entire life. This recipe is insane. I was like, this is illegal. And then the girls’ reactions to it gave me so much confidence.
Olivia: This is the best thing I’ve ever had.
Queenie: And Elana doesn’t even like salmon.
Elana: I don’t but I would eat that every day.
‘This recipe is insane.’
Credit: YouTube/@CookingWithTammy
Do you cook for the girls often?
Queenie: Not often but I make them Filipino dishes sometimes. The most important one that these girls love is my Filipino spaghetti. And like if I don’t make it my mom usually comes [over] and she’ll make it.
Olivia: What’s that soup?
Queenie: Sinigang. I can’t wait to take them to the Philippines, both on tour and for fun. It’s a different world. I’m not the type to like to go [to places] as a tourist, go to resorts. I feel like if you’re gonna go to another country, experience the local parts, the actual neighborhoods. It’s important to see those things when you go to another country, and not just like the rich areas.
Where would you suggest someone go for their first time in the Philippines?
Queenie: Manila, just because that’s the [main] city. Then [go] anywhere that you can go island hopping because it’s the most beautiful thing. And I feel like you get both worlds there. Because anywhere you travel for island hopping you have to go through mountains and you have to see nature, sometimes you have to fly to it. So it’s just a whole experience. Also, go to the Mall of Asia, one of the biggest malls in the world.
Queenie: I started “Street Woman Fighter” because it’s huge in the dance community in general. JAM Republic is one of the groups that have joined who are like from the U.S. And then there’s this one girl Bada Lee, who everyone’s geeking over saying that she’s fucking fine, and I can abide by that because she is. The way she dances… chef’s kiss.
[Watching her] I am mesmerized. I wish I could dance like that. Looking at people who are at that level is just mind-boggling to me. I love staying updated with the dance battles, and I wish I could be there one day.
Lillian
Lillian: I’ve been a fan of Ari since she came out with this album. And so it was so fun to see her do this 10-year anniversary and remake it as she would do it now. The difference in her vocals… they’re in their prime time right now. Even her tone is a little bit different, I think because of filming Wicked. And people are saying “I can understand what you’re saying now.”
Lillian: I love to put [videos] on when I do my makeup and hear other artists talk about their experiences. You can always learn from it. I just love Victoria, like she’s just the sweetest, and her voice is so nice to listen to. She’s so soft-spoken and was talking about how she grew up shy, and I relate to that a lot. But she’s done all these amazing things and been in all these crazy rooms with crazy artists, and she’s worked on some of the biggest hits. Now she’s finally honing her artistry, which is cool because I love her music, too. Her new album is really good.
Queenie: If I were a solo artist in the future, she’s like the epitome of what I would love to do for a video, like the masc/femme of “On My Mama.” That’s literally what I want to do,
She was also talking about manifesting, that she had been doing it since she was little.
Lillian: She also talks about new motherhood. I love it when people talk about pregnancy or postpartum, what you can go through that’s not so fun. Because I feel like people don’t talk about that much. And then women get pregnant, and they’re like, “This is like the worst time of my life but also the best,” and it’s just very confusing.
Victoria notes how it’s really important to always go up to the mother and give them attention and ask about how they’re doing because most people will just go straight to your belly or the baby. So you just feel invisible, [even though] being the mother to this child is like the best thing in your whole life. So it’s conflicting feelings, and people need to understand because it happens every day.
Makhyli
Makhyli: I’m super into affirmations and manifestation. It’s been big for me since I was tiny. It’s kind of like I grew up on my mom’s side with spirituality and affirmations, and it always just stuck with me. My dad was religious but my mom was spiritual, so I felt I grew up just hating what my mom believed because my dad would be talking in my ear, right?
But then I was like, “Oh, wait, this is sick. I love this. Give me the sage, give me the crystals.” I found what I believe in, who I am at my core. And now I just take it with me everywhere because I feel like [it resonates with me] more. It’s the one thing in life that can always give you hope. Manifesting is something that I can always look forward to no matter where you are in your life, even if you’re at your lowest of lows, you can always manifest something better. That’s what always gets us through.
Religion is finding faith in something else. And manifesting is finding faith in yourself. You’re like a renewable resource. What age were you like, ‘I feel confident that this is actually who I am.’
Makhyli: I think we all manifested being here, but I don’t think I knew that’s what it was like. When I was tiny, like seven, my mom was like, “OK, so when you’re older and go to college…” and I was like, “I’m gonna be on tour.”
And she was like, “OK! I won’t ask you again, I won’t push you.” And she helped me get where I am now. I owe it all to her. She used to be our house mom for a while because I was the youngest. And she’s always been pushing me to work hard and she likes me to be independent, too. But I also call her if I’m like, “What brand of toothpaste do I get?” Ever since I was small, she’s been my best friend. My dad was never really involved. Man, what’s in the air! The last two days we’ve been getting so much closer.
Are all of you guys getting closer?
Makhyli: We’ve been talking so much. I feel like we’re together all the time and sharing a room, we’re up at night. We share a house, but this has brought us back to when we first joined the group and we had bunk beds and we shared one room.
