Mandy Moore - So Real - Lyrics Meaning

"So Real" is the title track from pop singer Mandy Moore's 1999 debut album. The song was released as a single in Australia and, though a video was made, it was also not released in the United States. Within three months, the album went platinum in the RIAA, though this success was minor compared to the success of Moore's pop-singing contemporaries Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Moore was only fifteen years old when the album was released and, unlike other female performers of her generation, she was committed to remaining chaste and not becoming sexualized at too early an age. This commitment can be heard in "So Real," where the artist sings repeatedly that her "innocence won't be denied." Though the song mostly seems to be about the relationship of a naive girl who is concerned only with "true love" that is "so, so real," the song hides a deeper, more adult theme. In the line "It's my innocence that make you yearn / For that perfect gift you can't return" Moore is clearly singing about losing her virginity, a fact that the artist didn't realize until she was older and that is now a source of embarrassment for her.