A native of Maine based in Portland, Stokes started playing piano and wrote her first songs at age eight. Monthly open mikes with a friend started soon after. At 14, she enrolled at the Maine Academy of Modern Music and eventually recorded dozens of songs on her phone, sharing "Little Houses" as a high school sophomore. A video-taped performance got her a manager in 2019, the year she graduated from Falmouth High. Her early songs had collected millions of streams by the time Atlantic offered her a contract in mid-2020. Recorded in a rented cabin while she was still a student, Stokes' seven-song debut EP, Swimming Lessons, appeared in March 2021 as she was working on her first album. She kicked off 2022 with the emotionally charged single "Habits," which was produced by Tony Berg (Taylor Swift, Pheoebe Bridgers). That song and five others appeared on the fantastical 2023 EP Catching Rabbits.

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