The Pretty Reckless is fronted by sixteen-year-old actress Taylor Momsen. Momsen has gained her fame portraying bad girl, Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl.

When the show started, she was fourteen, innocent and natural. By the second season she was in the process of turning into a bad ass. In interviews, she’s rude, short, and proclaims, “I’m not trying to be a role model!”

She’s given shit for the way she dresses, chain smokes, and her all around persona. She’s an easy target for all of these reasons and because she’s a young actress turned singer and who isn’t sick of that? But the truth is, Momsen has a wonderfully gritty voice. She sounds like someone who has smoked way too many cigarettes or maybe a little like Courtney Love. The actual music isn’t bad either. Her songs sound like b-sides to music recorded before she was born and that’s not a bad thing.

The lyrics are a bit weak, but she’s young. It would be surprising if the music was complex. That’s not to say the lyrics are bad. “I’m just sixteen if you know what I mean? Do you mind if I take off my dress?” They’re fun and a little like a kid trying on her older sisters grown-up clothing. But it works.

Momsen conquers what few actresses turned singer have. She’s doing what Miley Cyrus has failed to do, be young, edgy, and talented with out selling underage sex. She is breaking out of the teeny bopper mold. Yes, she’s young. Yes, she’s singing about things she shouldn’t know yet. And yes, she looks significantly older than she is, but who cares?

Like it or not, Taylor Momsen is talented. The EP isn’t perfect, but she has the rest of her life to create a number one record. And who says she can’t?