Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl

"Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" (stylized in all lowercase) is a song by American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo for her second studio album, Guts (2023). Rodrigo wrote it with Dan Nigro, who produced it.

Background
After the commercial success of her debut studio album, Sour (2021), Olivia Rodrigo continued collaborating with Dan Nigro, who had produced all of the tracks on it. The follow-up album, Guts (2023), was conceived when she was aged 19, a year that she described as "lots of confusion, mistakes, awkwardness & good old fashioned teen angst". The album and its title were announced on June 26, 2023, and its lead single, "Vampire", was released four days later. The song reached number one in various countries, including the United States, where it became her third number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. "Bad Idea Right?" was chosen as the follow-up single.

Rodrigo wrote "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" with Nigro. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.

Composition
"Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" is three minutes and 23 seconds long. Nigro produced the song, and he engineered it with Sam Stewart, Sterling Laws, Dave Schiffman, and Jasmine Chen. He plays guitar, percussion, and drum programming; Erick Serna and Stewart play electric guitar; Ryan Linvill plays bass; and Laws plays drums. Spike Stent mixed the song, and Randy Merrill mastered it.

Commercial performance
"Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" debuted at number 24 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song peaked at number 25 on the Canadian Hot 100. In the United Kingdom, it charted at number 20 on the Official Audio Streaming Chart however was ineligible to chart on the main UK Singles Chart due to a rule which permits a maximum of 3 songs per artist on the chart. In Australia, "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" reached number 22. The song peaked at number 18 in New Zealand. It charted at number 21 on the Billboard Global 200. Elsewhere, "Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl" reached national record charts, at number 17 in Ireland, number 51 in Portugal, and number 53 in Greece.

Live performance
The song was first performed in an acoustic version at an exclusive show at the Ace Theater as part of Amex Member Week together with its co-writer and producer Dan Nigro on October 9, 2023. On October 24, she performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Guts.
 * Dan Nigro – producer, songwriter, engineer, guitar, percussion, vocal producer, drum programming
 * Olivia Rodrigo – songwriter
 * Erick Serna – electric guitar
 * Ryan Linvill – bass
 * Sam Stewart – electric guitar, engineer
 * Sterling Laws – drums, engineer
 * Dave Schiffman – Engineer
 * Jasmine Chen – engineer
 * Randy Merrill – mastering
 * Spike Stent – mixing
 * Matt Wolach – mixing assistance