Q&A

I wrote my first song when I was eight, during what I thought was the best friendship I'd ever had. That inspired me to write a song called Best Friends. I produced it with my piano teacher, but when we were almost done it was summer break — and when the break ended we'd both kind of forgotten about it.

After that I didn't write another song for a while. Then when I was eleven I went to karaoke with my friends and they sang You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift. I had no idea who Taylor Swift was. The song got stuck in my head, I looked it up, and from there I was sucked down the rabbit hole that is Taylor Swift. That inspired me to write.

Honestly? Everything. Anytime something happens to me or to people around me, I write a song about it. A lot of the time I don't finish that song.

I also get inspiration in the strangest places. Like one day I was out skiing all day and got these lyrics stuck in my head with a really catchy melody. I skied ahead of my brothers and Dad, took off my glove, pulled my phone out of my pocket, and recorded a voice memo. As the day continued I kept getting more pieces until I had an entire song in like five or six voice memos. I still haven't put them together though...

Yes! Absolutely! For writing it's Shannon Messenger and Rick Riordan — I love their work so much. I also admire Lisa McMann and Chris Colfer.

For music it's Taylor Swift. I also look up to my songwriting teacher, Paulina Jayne. I admire singer-songwriters Sloan Treacy, Gracie Abrams, and Chappell Roan, as well as Sabrina Carpenter.

Acoustic guitar, piano, and ukulele. I learned piano when I was eight or nine and have continued to practice it. I learned guitar in September 2024 via Simply Guitar and finished the whole program in about a month. In January 2025, I started taking guitar lessons with my songwriting teacher Paulina.

That is really difficult. It's normally the one I've most recently written. For a while, from late November 2024 to mid February 2025, my favorite was Best Friends. I loved it so much and loved performing it live.

In mid February I became addicted to playing Strangers live — it is such a fun song. I really love all my songs.

I can say this though: in all my songs, the outro is my favorite bit. The Lyla outro lyrics are just so perfect. I love how the Best Friends outro slows down then speeds up. The way the Soul Sisters outro fades out is gorgeous. All the outros are brilliant in their own way.

That is a very complicated question because the answer is always different.

Yes — I have written or co-written all the songs I release.

That is a really long answer — but luckily I'm writing a book about it! It's called The Making of a Song. There's no official release date yet but it is coming. Probably. I'm a little busy right now.

In the actual writing it's Paulina (though she and I edit them together after I write them). But after the writing — when it comes to notating the melody, finding a tempo, etc — it's definitely my mom.

Unfortunately no — I've decided to take a break on producing music so I can make more of an effort to perform live.

I write fantasy — it's always been my favorite genre. My books have lots of magic and adventure with death and battles and more.

Rick Riordan for sure. His writing is amazing and I could never dream of writing that well. His humor is impeccable and I'm laughing multiple times a page. I love how he makes me mad and happy and sad all at the same time. (Even if he does hold the record for the evilest cliffhanger ever at the end of The Mark of Athena.)

My second favorite is definitely Shannon Messenger.

It's different for every book. The first one I wrote took only two months to finish (it was 60,000 words back then).

My second book I started in late Jan/early Feb 2024 and as of Feb 2025 I still haven't finished it — it's currently around 50,000 words.

The other book I started in September 2024 and finished in January 2025. It's around 42,000 words.

I used to read all the time — I could read 400-page KotLC books in one night. I was a master of rereading though; I almost never read new books and I love noticing new things on a reread.

These days I don't read as much because of how busy I am with writing and music. I really wish I could read more though.

I don't really have one. If I feel like writing I can write for hours on end. If not, I can sometimes write no more than two sentences.

I also don't try to force it. If there's no spark when I sit down to write, I'll just get up and do something else.

Hmm, I'm not sure I have one. I really enjoy finally reaching the end of the book, but the beginnings are definitely the easiest.

A lot of things! I love to swim and hang out with my friends. Every morning when I wake up I go straight to check my messages because that's when everyone is texting.

I like to read when I have time and I knit sometimes. I'll often multitask — listen to an audiobook and do a coloring page at the same time.

Sometimes I'll do Aerial Silks from the mast of the boat! I enjoy playing games like Catan Junior, Ticket to Ride, Sleeping Queens, and Exploding Kittens.

I love baking and make cookies several days a week. My specialties are soups and stews (especially beef and bean chili). I don't watch many movies and play even fewer video games — almost all my time on devices is spent working. I'm also not allowed on social media.

Write. Just Write. I think people are right when they say just write. If you're going to be a musician, make sure you can play an instrument. Write your songs and practice performing them. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice.

If you want to be an author, just write your book. Write it until it's done. Just finish the first draft — then you can edit it. As I tell my friend who is insisting on rewriting her whole book: you can rewrite the whole book later. When you're done you need to edit it. Get your friends to read it. Delete and add entire chapters. Do whatever. Just don't do that until AFTER you finish draft 1.

I hate math. HATE it. I don't enjoy hiking (unless it's with friends) or going on walks. There's more but I can't seem to think of it right now...

I don't have much schoolwork — that's the answer. I'm homeschooled and pretty much only have two subjects. I have a math curriculum (ugg, that has to be the one subject) and I do Duolingo (I'm very passionate about it — top 1% learner in 2024 and top 2% in 2023).

On most days that takes about thirty minutes, so I have the rest of the day to work and do what I want.

Strangers. Absolutely. I don't know why but it is such a fun song to play — I love the buildup, the strumming, the energy, and everything really.

That's really difficult. I love bean and cheese burritos. I find most soups really good. I am way over obsessed with the Tesco white sourdough loaf. I also love my chocolate chip cookies and my favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip.

I would want to control water. There is not even a doubt on my mind.

Purple! Turquoise! Silver!