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I was a real loner in high school, even though people assume I was the head cheerleader.

In high school I never went to the prom because I was too consumed with gymnastics. Also, with my hair in pigtails and looking about 10, I wasn't exactly date material.

I was obsessed with being popular in high school and never achieved it. There's photos from our high school musicals, and I'm comically in the deep background, wearing a beggar's costume.

I wanted to be a cheerleader, like my sister was - all the most popular and beautiful girls are cheerleaders and I wanted that, and it demolished this vision of myself. That's when I found the piano, when music saved me; that's when I first attempted to write my own songs.

I've never been a cheerleader. It's so outside of my range of things I could ever do.

All my friends were cheerleaders, and I was the girl who hung out at home. I just worked on my music all the time.

I was embarrassed about modeling. When you're at school and you're modeling, it sounds very glamorous, but I didn't want to do things that no one else was doing. I didn't want to be the odd one out. I wanted to be part of the gang.

I was never an ambitious girl, or even a self-confident one. I never went in for beauty pageants or wore a stitch of make-up until I went to Los Angeles.

I stayed away from mirrors when I was younger and I didn't like having my picture taken. I was tall and had braces and felt ugly.

Fortunately my career has never been about how I look, it's about how I can be.