As a new artist there's always outside influences trying to tell you how to make a song better for radio and how to do your hair.

There's no half-singing in the shower, you're either a rock star or an opera diva.

Even with our differences There is a place we're all connected Each of us can find each other's light, There's so much to be thankful for.

Don't try to be like me. Try to be like yourself. Try to be very good at being yourself.

I've been aware of my gay fans since album one. There has been such great support from that community and it has gone both ways.

I wanted to focus on songs that I was inspired by growing up. I love so many of them from the last 100 years, but I really wanted, for my first step forward, to choose material that has inspired me and got me into the world of musical theater.

It wasn't that I got pinned against my locker, but I was intensely aware that the things I valued weren't shared by anyone. Girls didn't like me, and I had few friends.