Sabrina Carpenters Manchild: A Playful and Thought-Provoking Summer Bop
Sabrina Carpenter is back with a new single that is already receiving rave reviews from her fans. The Short n’ Sweet pop star debuted her latest song, “Manchild,” on June 5, marking her first single of 2025. The song, which features frequent collaborators Jack Antonoff and Amy Allen, sees Carpenter leaning into Short n’ Sweet’s country-pop dispositions once more.
On “Manchild,” Carpenter complains about being pursued by a man she thinks is either stupid or “maybe useless.” The twangy single comes four days after Carpenter originally teased its release on social media, where she was seen trying to hitch a ride on a dirt road in a grainy clip posted to Instagram.
The song’s lyrics are a mix of playful and thought-provoking, with Carpenter asking “Why so sexy if so dumb?” and “How survive the Earth so long?” In the chorus, she pleads, “Man-child/Why you always come a-running to me?/F*** my life/Won’t you let an innocent woman be?/Never heard of self-care/Half your brain just ain’t there/Man-child/Why you always come a-running, taking all my loving from me?”
Online, many of the pop star’s fans, affectionately known as Carpenters, are already singing the track’s praises. One fan wrote on X, “I like how ‘Manchild’ isn’t even a mean song fr, it’s really just questioning how men have lived this long being so damn dumb.” Another fan wrote on TikTok, “I understand she needs her pop moment but this feels too similar to Chappell [Roan]. I need her to go back to more meaningful lyrics.”
Despite some mixed reactions from fans, Carpenter seems to have addressed speculation that the new song is specifically about her ex-boyfriend, actor Barry Keoghan. She wrote in an Instagram caption, “I wrote ‘Manchild’ on a random Tuesday with Amy and Jack not too long after finishing Short n’ Sweet and it ended up being the best random Tuesday of my life. Not only was it so fun to write, but this song became to me something I can look back on that will score the mental montage to the very confusing and fun young adult years of life.”
The Grammy winner described “Manchild” as the “embodiment of a loving eye roll,” and said it feels like a “never ending road trip in the summer.” She added, “Thank you always and forever for listening and thank you men for testing me!”
With its catchy melody and thought-provoking lyrics, “Manchild” is sure to be a hit among Sabrina Carpenter’s fans. The short n’ sweet pop star continues to impress with her unique blend of country-pop and pop-punk, and with this latest release, she shows no signs of slowing down.
