Penn State student Ali Wolverton, or Ali Wolv as she’s known in the industry, is a budding musician, setting her sights on becoming a pop star. Ten years ago, she had never heard a secular song.

Wolverton was born in the Poconos to a family that belonged to what she described as a “religious cult.” For the first decade of her life, she attended private school in her church’s basement with just 30 other kids from the religion.

Her sheltered upbringing meant she had minimal contact with the outside world.

“I’d never heard any music other than church music,” Wolverton said about her childhood. “I’d never seen movies.”

Her father was a pianist for the church, so she grew up around music, but she was oblivious to anything past what she heard on Sunday mornings.

Her family ultimately left the church, and Wolverton started public school for the first time in her life. While on the bus to her first day, she heard her first secular song on the radio, a pivotal moment.

Tao Cruz’s “Dynamite” echoed over the speakers, and Wolverton claims it altered her brain chemistry forever.

“I’d never heard pop music before,” Wolverton said.

While music is a fundamental part of many people’s lives, for Wolverton, it became something more. She suddenly had endless new genres to explore beyond the church hymns she spent her whole life singing. As she got older and gained more access to the internet, her obsession with these newfound melodies grew.

Even so, music was just a hobby, and it wasn’t on her radar as something that could be done as a career. Wolverton was a three-sport athlete in high school, and focused heavily on her athletics until she realized it wasn’t where her passion lay. She quit all her sports and decided one day to post a song she had written on TikTok. She was already committed to Penn State at this point and figured there was no harm in posting.

“Within a month, I had record labels reaching out to me,” Wolverton said.

Electric Feel, the management company of talents including Post Malone and Quavo, became interested in Wolverton while she was still a senior in high school, and after numerous calls with Wolverton, they offered to fly her out to Los Angeles.

She spent the week in LA working with the label, meeting the producers, and getting to go into a studio for the first time in her life. Wolverton still didn’t consider becoming an artist at the time, and she thought she would be offered a writing position behind the scenes.

By the end of the week, the label executives had different plans.

“You’re an artist. You’re a star. We’re signing you to our label,” Electric Feel told Wolverton.

She then spent the remainder of her high school career flying back and forth to LA, working on music and creating her brand.

After a summer in Hollywood, she came to Penn State as a freshman in the fall of 2024. After a hard first semester of health problems, roommate issues, and an overall bad freshman experience, Wolverton decided she wanted to drop out.

While Wolverton has since returned to Penn State, that was not her original plan.

“It was technically a leave of absence, but I was like, ‘I’m not coming back.’ I did the leave of absence just in case, and thank god I did,” Wolverton said.

In what would’ve been her second semester of freshman year, she packed her bags and moved to LA all by herself.

The first few months were exactly what she had hoped for, but the stress of the city of Angels started to take a toll on her.

“I was just doing so bad mentally, and that’s just also not even a space where you can make good art and make good music,” Wolverton said.

In June of 2025, she returned to her hometown and ditched the glitz and glamour for a simple job at a local restaurant, a decision that was crucial to help her feel like her old self. She was able to find joy again after being in an atmosphere of “socialites and people who want something from you.”

One day, while at the restaurant, she saw a request in her Instagram DMs from musician Henry Morris, asking her to open for him on tour. He gave her just a week’s notice, and she had never even performed a show at this point.

Naturally, though, Wolverton jumped at the opportunity. She and her team prepped her that whole week, and she headed back out West for her first shows in San Diego, Phoenix, and Dallas. She even played a show at the iconic Troubadour, a historic venue that launched the careers of Elton John, Bob Dylan, and more.

In the midst of her career taking off, she was simultaneously moving back into college at Penn State after the semester off. Now she is currently balancing a fully online class schedule for her philosophy major while bouncing around the country playing shows.

Wolverton doesn’t like to think about long-term plans; she just hopes she can continue making music.

“To get enough money to where everybody I love never has to worry about anything ever again; that’s the end goal,” Wolverton said. “But if we want to be more like stupid, my end goal would probably be, I don’t know, to go to the Grammys. That’d be cool,” Wolverton said with a laugh.

Wolverton receives plenty of support in her career from her parents, especially her mother, despite her strict upbringing in the religion they previously belonged to.

“I’m so blessed that they’ve been able to open their minds because a lot of times when people are raised in institutions like that, you never grow out of it,” Wolverton said.

She is currently occupied promoting the release of her debut EP, “The Ruiner,” which features six tracks and explores themes about authenticity and self-sabotage.

Students on campus who pass her have no idea she’s leading a double life; going to frat parties one night and on the road to New York for a show the next. She’s okay with that. She’s also okay stretching herself thin to reach her full potential.

“I want to be successful at everything so bad,” Wolverton said. “Sometimes you just can’t win them all, but you can try.”

Ali Wolv is certainly a name to watch. To listen to her first album and see what she is up to, you can check her out on Instagram @ali_wolv.