The loss of my mom really inspired me to go to a place with my performances that were emotionally honest, and I found that audiences really responded to that. People need to see heartbreak transformed into beauty.

As my mom says, I was a little bit of a slacker in high school. I really was just kind of unmotivated, a little bit lazy, so my grades weren't that good.

When I was in college, there were a couple years there where I was just not sure what to do, and it was actually my mom who suggested I take some journalism classes.

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