Tessa Violet Williams is an American singer-songwriter, social media personality, actress, music video director, and former child model. Violet grew up in Ashland, Oregon and performed in theatre productions while in high school. She created her YouTube channel under the name Meekakitty in July 2006. In 2007, Violet began making daily vlogs for a school project while working in Hong Kong and Thailand as a fashion model.
After moving to New York in 2009, Violet gained attention after winning $100,000 in a YouTube competition by receiving the most comments on her video entry. In 2011, Violet was featured in fellow YouTube creator Nanalew’s unofficial music video for the song “Sail” by Awolnation. The video went viral and has since amassed over 370 million views. In September 2012, Violet appeared in the music video for Family Force 5’s “Cray Button” ft. Lecrae.
Violet released her first album Maybe Trapped Mostly Troubled in March 2014. The album was produced by Seth Earnest at Maker Studios, with John Zappin as A&R. Despite the lack of attention from traditional media sources, the record debuted at number 10 on the Billboard Heatseekerss chart and sold 5,000 copies in the first three months. Violet released the lead single “Dream” from her EP Halloway in September 2016. The full EP was released October. She released videos for all songs on the project.
In 2018, Violet revealed she was working on her second album, Bad Ideas. “Crush”, the first single from the record, was released in June. An accompanying music video directed by Big Forest was released on YouTube on the same day. The single led to Violet being featured on YouTube’s Artist On The Rise. The entire album was set to release in August 2018, but instead was delayed and set to be released in three different parts. The album’s title track, “Bad Ideas,” was released as a single in November alongside a music video. “I Like (the idea of) You” came out in May 2019. She released Bad Ideas (Act One) in July 2019, featuring remixes of the first three singles of the project. The plan for the project then changed to release the rest of the album all at once.
In February 2022, Violet released “YES MOM”, the first single from her third studio album. In June Violet released the single “Breakdown”, alongside the announcement of her Rise of the Phoenix tour with openers Will Joseph Cook and Daysormay, which ran from August to October 2022. On August 9, Violet released the single Kitchen Song, followed by a voice memo version of the song. In March 2023, Violet released the single “You Are Not My Friend”. In April and May 2023, Violet toured as an opening act for the for Half Alive’s “Conditions of a Punk” tour.
