Mei Semones gets Teen Vogue’s You_niverse #5 spotlight

Teen Vogue's August 21, 2026 Instagram post names Japanese-American indie-pop songwriter Mei Semones as the fifth subject of its You_niverse series. The post frames Semones through a current personal-lore list — including her guitar BFF and go-to thrifted jeans — and credits the photos to Semones, with art treatment by Liz Coulbourn. 1

Berklee describes Semones as an indie-pop artist whose agile guitar lines, rhythmic shifts, and bilingual English-Japanese lyrics draw from J-pop, jazz, and bossa nova. Tokyo Weekender notes that Semones grew up with an American father and Japanese mother before moving to New York City. The card uses Berklee's real photograph by Sophia Paffenback. 23