Carly Pearce

So I loved country music from the time I was like in elementary school.

And I, I felt really out of place, like being a creative person and being somebody that just wanted to sing and like

I always felt just different because I loved country music and I loved bluegrass music and I loved performing and I wanted to be in theater and I wanted to sing with all these different bands growing up in Kentucky.

And so I always felt like I had a lot of friends, but I was very bullied for like loving country music.

And now I'm like,

It was not the cool thing when I was growing up.

It was like almost... I would feel like embarrassed because I loved it so much.

So it was like pop.

It was like Britney and NSYNC and all that stuff.

And I loved that too, but...

People just didn't understand.

And that's why I think I have such like a passion for young kids in school that maybe don't academically feel like that's their path and they want to be creative.

It's like you have to have a space for that because there's so many kids that feel like me that just were like, wait, I'm not like fitting in socially.

Yeah.

When I tell this story now, it's like what, I have no idea what they were thinking.

I was really good in school as well.

So I was like a very disciplined kid.

So I think that they knew I wasn't running from school.

And I saw an audition to sing in the country show at Dollywood when I was 15.

In our like local Cincinnati, I live right outside of Cincinnati, Ohio.