Kelsea Ballerini

When I was 12, I was going through an awkward time. Writing music helped me find my voice and express the things I was feeling.

It's really cool when, in every genre of music, you can listen to a song and know what era it was from.

People send me songs all the time that are literally no-brainer hits... but for me, I'm an artist because I'm a writer.

I think that every time a country artist steps outside of the country boundary, it just brings more ears to us.

The First Time' is a song that I wrote by myself on my front porch, in real-time, as that situation was happening to me.

I think that I've just kind of found my niche, if that makes sense. I still write the same, but I feel like I've found what separates me, and I always try to stay in that when I write. It took me a long time to discover that, so I try to be protective.

The fun thing about song writing is that it's just creative. It can be whatever you want it to be. For me, I'm really protective of that. I'm not going to write something because I feel like it fits here or it fits there - I just want to write music that feels good to me, you know?

I share so much of my life on social media, and I love the honest connection with the people that follow me.