Scarlett White, the daughter of Karen Elson and Jack White, has always been interested in human behaviour and how it influences making music
This story is taken from the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of AnOther Magazine:
“I always wanted to better understand the emotion and intention behind the music that left a mark on me. When I was younger, I was obsessed with the mannerisms of my idols. I’d study my favourite musicians’ music videos, movements, lyrics and chord progressions. Maybe that’s where my interest in human behaviour comes from. As humans we yearn to be understood and, at the same time, we fear it. We want to share what inspires us and be recognised for our work, but we also want full control over how we are perceived. I want to be somebody and yet I want to be completely anonymous too. I think, to be truly understood, you have to give in to yourself in a way that is almost out of your control.
“I once saw Paul McCartney performing a small show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. He told the audience the story behind Blackbird and the whole room fell silent. When he started to play, I realised something – beneath the noise and narrative exists an ability to give ourselves over to art, our own art and other people’s. One day I’d like to earn a room’s silence, not through authority or volume but through integrity – for the right reasons – hoping it makes people feel something beautiful and human.”
As the daughter of the model and singer Karen Elson and musician and record label co-founder Jack White, Scarlett White grew up in Nashville ensconced in a home life that was “beautifully atypical”. There was noise and there was chaos. There were demanding travel schedules. There was a house full of instruments and a studio in the garden. “My little brother and I would wave goodbye as my dad loaded gear onto a tour bus or as my mom caught a last-minute plane to Milan. Despite that, there was a surprising sense of normalcy,” the 19-year-old says. “It was a blend of perpetual artistic expression and ordinary domesticity, with everything backed by the sound of music, movies or the pinball machine.” White moved to New York for art school in 2024 and is also a model – last year she appeared in campaigns for Valentino and Marc Jacobs – and musician herself, most recently joining her father on stage at Irving Plaza to play bass.
This story features in the Spring/Summer 2026 issue, marking 25 years of AnOther Magazine, on sale now.
