Lola Young is once again speaking frankly about a personal struggle, this time turning her attention to vaping and the physical toll it's taken on her. In a TikTok posted Wednesday, Sept. 30, the 25-year-old singer said breathing has become unexpectedly difficult after years of the habit.
"My lungs feel like they're battery powered, like they're just one big battery," Young said in the video. "And breathing feels like a chore."
Young said she had been warned years earlier that vaping would eventually catch up with her, a warning she brushed off at the time. Reflecting on it now, she said simply, "the day has come." She described the act of breathing as "hard work," joking that she ought to be paid "£30-an-hour" for the effort.
Despite the candid admission, Young made clear the video wasn't meant as a declaration that she's giving up vaping. Asked about quitting, she laughed it off, saying, "I'll try to quit when I'm 45."
The remarks follow a period in which Young has been open about broader struggles with addiction and recovery. She has pointed to a 2025 performance at New York's All Things Go Music Festival as a turning point, after she collapsed onstage during the show — an incident she has described as a breaking point that pushed her toward making changes in her life.
Through it all, Young's career has continued to climb. Her breakout single "Messy" became her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 14 in March 2025 and introducing her blunt songwriting and personality to a wider audience. She also appears on Tyler, The Creator's "Like Him," which peaked at No. 43 on the Hot 100.
Photo: LauraMayM, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
