I want that to be my overall message - that we just need to love each other. We need to love other more.
No matter where you're from, what you've done, who you are, what your family's done, it's like, you cannot be healthy without love.
As a 15, 16-year-old girl, someone messaging you on Facebook and telling you you're fat is devastating. It's still devastating when someone says something horrible about me, but I love myself so much more as a person.
I don't think that anyone was trying to keep me from writing the first album. It's just when you're on 'American Idol' or a TV show like that, you wanna capitalize on that momentum, and you want to use that to your advantage, obviously, so the best way to do that is to get the music out as fast as possible. And there's no time to create, really.
I just feel like in society and in public, we have this unspoken expectation that we're all trying to meet. And there's so much pressure to try to fit in.
I'm a goofball, and I have this huge personality, and I used to try to hide that. I used to try to kind of dim my light.
People always ask me who my role models are and who I want to be like, and I don't wanna be like anybody; I wanna be me. I look up to a lot of people, and they have had great influences on me, but I wanna be original and different.
I don't have those superstitious ticks that people have to have something for the road. I like to have good food on the bus, my own pillow, and onesies. Onesies are a must.
Self-confidence is something I've always lacked in. But finally, at some point, I just decided to be honest.
We all have our things that we go through, and I wanted to be an artist that people could listen to and feel like they're not alone. I want to be empowering.
I want to make people feel good about who they are regardless of who they are or where they come from or the color of their skin or what their family acts like or what they look like. I am all about acceptance of others and of yourself.
People would say to me, 'Who do you want to be as an artist?' And I would just look at them because I didn't know.
I got really tired of fighting who I am, and I did that for a really long time; I was trying to be this perfect girl, perfect family, perfect body, and those people aren't real.
My mom married a family friend, and my dad married someone that's eight years older than me, so it was just like, these - like, I literally live a country song, so I had to write one.
I like any song that can tell a story that people can relate to.
None of my friends act any differently towards me, which is great. I was scared about that, so scared about that.
My mom would walk through a fire pit for me, and I'd do the same for her.
My first kiss was in 7th grade. It grossed me out. I kind of freaked out!
I love performing with a band way more than a track, just because it gets a whole new kind of vibe going and gets the energy up. You actually get to play off of the other people that are around you.
The first time I heard 'Georgia Peaches,' I absolutely loved it.
