BLONDE AMBITION
If Barbie went metal, she’d sound like gatekeeper-baiting ‘bimbocore’ heroine Scene Queen. And if the haters don’t like it, fuck ’em
WORDS: EMILY SWINGLE • PICTURES: PAIGE MARGULIES
PRESS/PAIGE MARGULIES
it’s March 2020, and Hannah Collins is sitting in the garage of her family home in Ohio. It’s the start of the pandemic and there’s a sense of alienation eating away at her - a longing to connect with other people, to immerse herself in the comfort of community.
She turns to TikTok. Despite only having seven followers, she props up her phone on a garbage can and begins dancing. Over the next few days and weeks, she begins posting religiously in the hope of finding more people like herself, people desperate to bond over their love of the alt scene. Little does she know that she’s about to open up an entirely new world.
Today, Hannah goes under the name Scene Queen and those initial TikTok posts have turned into something much bigger. Serving up rhinestone-encrusted riffs, bubblegum-infused breakdowns and bubbling hyperpop, she’s pioneered her own unique brand of Barbie-pink metalcore she calls ‘bimbocore’ – a balancing act of sugar, spice and reluctance to be nice.
“Listening to Motionless In White and the Spice Girls made me what I am,” she says. “Bimbocore is metal theatrics plus the pop princesses.”