The biggest problem I had - and the biggest problem teenagers have - is not how they dress, how they look or how they act or talk. It's how they see themselves - their self-esteem. In the tenth grade, I realized I am who I am. I've got big ears and big feet. I can etiher sulk around or I can be happy with who I am. The minute I decided to be confident with who I was, all that other stuff stopped. It's all in the way you carry yourself.

If my career detour from special education to singing has done one thing, it has afforded me the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others.

But I was going to be a teacher my entire life, so I wasn't counting on money to much.

I'd hate to have a job where I had to be rude to people.

I'm really not that special. Really, I'm not. I was on a big TV show, but it was just a TV show.

I'm not different. I'm not different at all. The wrapping is different but the gift is still the same.

It's important that I make a difference in some way. If it's performing and touching someone that way, that's great; if it's being a teacher and helping some kid understand something, that's even better.