Kathleen Hanna was born on November 12, 1968, in Portland, Oregon. As Bikini Kill’s singer, she helped make feminist politics part of punk’s everyday business: who stood at the front, who could hear the words and who felt able to start a band. “Rebel Girl” put that commitment into a song about admiration for another woman.
Her route to the microphone passed through writing. While attending college in the late 1980s, Hanna took a workshop with novelist Kathy Acker. As Hanna recalled to the Associated Press in 2024, she explained that she wanted to write because she wanted to be heard. Acker’s advice was direct: “You should start a band.” Music offered another way to get those words out into a room.
Bikini Kill formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1990. Hanna and her bandmates connected their songs, self-published zines and touring to an effort to bring women into making music. A self-released demo cassette arrived in 1991, followed by the Bikini Kill EP in 1992. The ambition extended beyond finding listeners for their own records. They wanted more women forming bands, putting on shows and circulating ideas through an underground network they could help build themselves.
That meant changing the experience inside the room. Speaking to NPR’s Fresh Air in 2024, Hanna described handing out lyric sheets when poor PA systems swallowed the words, then inviting women and girls closer to the stage. “What if we just rearrange this room a little bit?” she recalled thinking. The sheets also gave people something to take away, disagree with or use as encouragement for their own writing. Participation was built into the way the shows worked.
“Rebel Girl” grew out of those connections. Hanna told Fresh Air that she began finding the words while her bandmates developed the music in a Washington, D.C., basement. For the version released on the 1993 “New Radio” single, Joan Jett produced the recording and added guitar and backing vocals, with Hanna singing lead. The song placed another woman’s confidence at its center, making solidarity something to sing about as well as organize around.
As Bikini Kill wound down in 1997, Hanna started recording alone in her Olympia apartment. The result was Julie Ruin, released in 1998, which gave her space to experiment with electronics and hear her voice outside the band. In a 2013 interview with NPR, she described wanting to learn recording and become more comfortable listening to herself sing. The project also helped her work out what making music could mean after the group that had occupied so much of her life.
Trying to bring those solo songs to the stage led to Le Tigre, whose self-titled debut arrived in 1999. Drum machines, samples and guitar gave Hanna a different setting for her voice. “Deceptacon” opened the album, while “Hot Topic” turned a roll call of queer and feminist artistic inspirations into a song. The group also brought visual art into its performances, using a slide projector in its early shows before making video a substantial part of the presentation.
In 2010, Hanna returned to the idea of building a band around her solo material. The Julie Ruin reunited her with Bikini Kill bassist Kathi Wilcox in a five-piece lineup with keyboards, guitar and drums. On the band’s 2013 debut, Run Fast, Hanna’s credits included both lead vocals and mixing.
