I didn’t get hugely famous really quick. It was a slow, gradual process, so I was able to sort of grow into myself and figure out who I was and what I wanted without the glaring spotlight on me telling me who I was.

McLachlan contrasts rapid, media-driven celebrity with a career that unfolds over time. The “slow, gradual process” becomes a protective buffer: it gives an artist room to develop craft, identity, and personal boundaries before public narratives harden into a fixed persona. Her emphasis on “grow into myself” suggests that selfhood is not discovered all at once but formed through experience, and that intense early fame can short-circuit that formation by pressuring a young performer to conform to an externally imposed image. The quote also implies a model of sustainable success—one grounded in incremental recognition and self-determination rather than sudden visibility.