The fact that I get to do what I love and 14 years in, I'm still doing it - I don't know how anything could get better.

I'm cute - and God I hate that. Because that's not cool. I'm like your niece, and nobody wants to date their niece. It's the chubby cheeks. The whole reason people voted for me on American Idol is because I'm an everyday, normal girl.

I sing songs that I have lived or I write them because I have lived them. I think the believability factor is key.

I love dressing up and doing the red carpet every once in a while, but I am very much a jeans kinda girl, so it's all a little embarrassing for me.

This is my life; these are my fingerprints; I'm unique; this is what I want to do. You worry about your own front porch and what's happening in your own world.

I've never been more nervous in my life than singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl.

I'm the perfect amount of guarded. I don't reveal too much, and I never reveal who the songs are about. They are real life. People get that. I date a lot of musicians and they do the same thing. People that work with me - who I write about too - they get it. It's my creative outlet, my therapy.