At 14, Mandy Moore Was Confused By The “Candy” Lyrics

Mandy Moore was at homecoming when she realized her days as a normal teenage girl were behind her. Just months after releasing her breakout hit, “Candy,” the newly-minted pop star returned to her high school to attend the dance, only to overhear some classmates “talking crap” about her in the bathroom. As she listened to their gripes — “I can't believe she's here. Who does she think she is?” — the teenaged Moore debated whether to come out of the stall and confront them, or continue hiding.

“Of course, I waited for them to leave,” Moore tells Bustle. “And when I came out, I made a promise to myself: I don't think I'm ever going to come back and do anything at a school function again because I'm not sure it's my place anymore.”

Luckily, she was happy with her new home in the music business, which she’d dreamed of since age 6. She was scouted by a talent agent at 13, and made her first record, So Real, the following year. From then on, Moore spent her teens appearing on MTV’s Total Request Live and touring with NSYNC.

She was endlessly compared to Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson in those years, and while she was flattered by the association, Moore soon set herself apart by seriously pursuing acting. Her early work, playing mean girl Lana in 2001’s The Princess Diaries and making teen girls everywhere cry in 2002’s A Walk To Remember, set the stage for her career today. At 39, the actor continues to show her range, going from her Emmy-nominated performance in This Is Us to co-leading the second season of Peacock’s Dr. Death. After an 11-year break, she also returned to music, releasing pop-folk albums in 2020 and 2022.

Yet, despite her decades of experience in the industry, she claims to have more anxiety these days than she did as a 14-year-old. “I didn't know enough to be as nervous as I probably should have been, like you're stepping into an adult world, you're on the precipice of life changing forever as you know it and any sort of autonomy is going by the wayside,” she says, later adding, “I am really grateful looking back that nobody took me outside of my comfort zone. I was always just allowed to be myself.”

Below, Moore reflects on her life at 14, feeling confused by the “Candy” lyrics, and the time Justin Timberlake made an embarrassing comment about her feet.

Let's go back to 1998 and ‘99, when you were 14. What did a typical day in the life look like for you?

I had just started my first year of high school in Orlando, Florida. I was getting ready to leave because I signed a record deal. I was going to start recording my first album.

I went from getting ready to go to Catholic high school — when I would put on my uniform every morning watching MTV — to eight to 10 months later, having a music video on MTV. It was very, very bizarre.

I read in a 1999 Billboard interview that you said you were known as “National Anthem Girl.” How did that come about?

I went to an Orlando Magic basketball game when I was 12, and I saw a kid my age sing the national anthem. It was like a lightbulb moment for me. I'd only seen adults come out and sing the national anthem. So I took that ball and ran with it. I sent in my audition tape to the Orlando Magic, and I got chosen to sing. Then, that subsequently rolled into the [local] football, ice hockey, and roller hockey teams. I honestly just did the national anthem circuit around the greater Orlando area.

When you were 15, you said you felt like you weren't growing up fast. How was time moving for you?

I feel like I didn't grow up too fast. I was very much allowed to work and then still see a movie with my friends, go to the mall, go to amusement parks. I was able to maintain a healthy balance between the two. Maybe that's because it was a different time. I mean, we're talking 20-some years ago. There wasn't social media; there wasn't that sense of FOMO. You didn't know what you were missing out on at school, or those influences weren't thrust in your face. So, I feel like I got the best of both worlds in that sense.

As you became famous, did any scrutiny ever come your way?

Scrutiny never really entered my orbit. Truth be told, I was lucky that if there were comments, concerns, or questions, they were filtered [out] before they made it to me. Everybody just let me choose what to wear, how to present myself, or how to answer questions. I look back, and it's pretty embarrassing now; some of my choices were questionable. My voice was so high-pitched, and the way I answered questions was so silly. But I was a kid. I didn't know what I was doing.

What do you remember from recording “Candy”?

It's funny. I feel like that was a time when — and maybe the music industry is the same way now — this was very much chosen for me. This was the song, and they were going to make it work in some shape or form. I was the lucky one that got to do it, and it helped jumpstart everything. But yeah, in a different sliding doors moment, it could have been anybody that sang that song and probably made it what it was.

What did you think of the song at the time?

I liked it right away. I was also confused, like, I’m missing you like candy. I couldn't understand what it meant exactly. Because I took it so literally, I'm like, Well, I do love candy. I love sugar. I love going to 7-Eleven and getting Sweet Tarts. I just couldn't reconcile what it could mean as a 15-year-old who'd barely French-kissed a boy. In a lot of my music back then, I was singing about things that I had absolutely no experience with, but at least [“Candy”] was on the more innocent side of the coin.

What were your relationships like with boys then?

I absolutely had crushes. I guess I had French-kissed a boy, but that was like the extent of it. Just holding hands with somebody still made my palms all sweaty, but yeah, I was getting to have the opportunity to be on MTV with Carson Daly and, oh my gosh, all these boy banders, NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. I was just a normal young girl besotted with all of them.

Were there any fun or embarrassing moments you had meeting the boy bands?

I remember being on tour with Justin Timberlake and NSYNC, and we were all backstage at a certain point. They were comparing height and foot size, and [Timberlake] looked at my feet and said, “Wow, you have big feet for a girl.” I was like 5’10” and had size 10 feet. At that point, I was just this long, skinny thing with these long boat feet. It didn't scar me, but I was like, ‘Oh, that was not the thing that you wanted this really handsome, famous guy to notice about you.’

Years later, he found me and apologized for it, which I thought was wholly unnecessary, but entirely gracious and sweet of him. He's like, “I know how that could traumatize you.” I was like, “Justin, no, no, no, I'm fine.” It was very, very kind of him. That was a mortifying moment. But you know, that kind of stuff, it's good for you.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.