I was thrown into the spotlight pretty quickly at UCLA.
To go from not being recognised at all to literally, the next day, having people stop you in the street was very, very weird. I had to buy myself a great baseball cap.
I was, like, talking to these kids, and I look up, and there was, like, 25 cameras around me. And I ran. I ran away. I, like, straight up ran away, and I was so scared, and then, like, it happened, and after I was done, it kinda sunk in.
When you suddenly appear on the scene and you are the new face, everything centers on you. I experienced this in my mid-20s and I found it rather hard.
As soon as 'Hide Away' came out, it was like everyone knew who I was, and I started getting all this attention. It was hard to get used to at first. I just remember that I suddenly couldn't walk down the hallways without hearing a classmate or teacher playing it - it was unreal!
There's a weird contrast between my usual daily routine and then my book coming out. It's like someone's just suddenly opened the curtains in a dark room, and everyone's looking at you.
My support group - my mom, my dad, my sisters, my brothers-in-law, my immediate nieces and nephews, my immediate family like Aunt Donna - I know I can trust them. Most of the other people...they never called me before, they never said "I love you" before, they never wanted to take a picture with me at family reunions. It's like, don't do it now...You win the lottery and all of a sudden everybody's your best friend.
I think it's definitely hard for the people who just out of nowhere come in and they do really well and all of the sudden the spotlight is on them.
People thought we were a joke because we got noticed so fast.
