I've always been drawn to strong women in every genre, people who push the boundaries because they're just epic.

I've always wanted to dye my hair a bright color.

When I was 13, I started writing songs, and it fell into my lap all of a sudden. I wrote poems and journals, but that's when it switched for me to songwriting. That's when I wanted to do everything. It was like a fire all of a sudden. I started coming to Nashville and moved here when I was 15.

You really do have to be different. You really do have to set yourself apart.

I am a fan before I am an artist. I was that twelve year old girl that looked up to Taylor Swift. I get what that role is as a fan. I think that because I know that, I'm really careful and intentional about what I say and what I put out. I want to be that role for anyone who wants me to be that.

With Rascal Flatts, I'm such a fan of them, and I feel like they've been so gracefully relevant through decades of country music.

As a young girl, there are pressures that come with any career, but I decided when I got into this I didn't want to be perfect.

I think that every time a country artist steps outside of the country boundary, it just brings more ears to us.

There's a YouTube video of these two kittens that just fall over and pass out. My blood sugar's crazy, so I would pass out sometimes, like the fainting kittens.

I've gotten to be part of a lot of incredible tours and have learned so much from the people I've had the opportunity to open for.

I try to be a good person. I love Jesus.

I remember telling myself when I got to start having artist opportunities, 'Let yourself be a fan, because you are. The minute that you walk in a room with Carrie Underwood, and you're too cool to freak out, you need to check yourself.' I just let myself be a fan.

My theory is the root of a country artist is truth and honesty. For me, I look at Sam Hunt. The truth and the honest thing is we have southern roots, we were raised in a southern way, but we listen to Drake and other stuff, too.

I was raised on a farm in East Tennessee, and my first concert was Britney Spears. It's my job as a country music artist to be honest about that.

I share so much of my life on social media, and I love the honest connection with the people that follow me.

I try to be as honest as I can in writing. That's what ends up translating and relating to people.

I love when an artist can stand by themselves and play their guitar and hold a crowd, but I also love bells and whistles.

'The First Time' is a song that I wrote by myself on my front porch, in real-time, as that situation was happening to me.

I was this little blond girl with a guitar case bigger than me - it was pink and sparkly at the time. But I always took myself seriously, and I think that people took that seriously. I would tell them about my goal list, and they listened. I was like, 'I want to be the one that swings the pendulum.'

I started writing songs by myself. That always came from whatever I was feeling and being honest about that because I never had any intention of anyone ever hearing them.

Being a songwriter is really the base of being an artist, for me.

My favorite songwriting trick is writing something like 'XO.' In my brain, I thought, 'This is probably going to be a love song. How can I change that and find ways to twist that.' As a songwriter, it's your job for the song to take twists and turns that people don't expect.

I get to remind myself and other people to be yourself, to rock you who you are, and don't worry about if it fits.

Before I really knew country music, I listened to pop, and I still do.

I am such a girly girl, and I love not playing it safe. I'm so new to this world, so it's fun to establish myself as a fashionista.

The greatest gift I've been given is being naive, because I don't know what I can't do. And when you don't know what you can't do, you think you can do everything.

I have a picture of me with Lady Antebellum, when they released their first single and I was at CMA Fest as a fan. I'm in flower-power shorts and a headband - so not cute - and I'm fan-girling next to Hillary. I couldn't believe I was standing next to her.

I'm so weird and quirky, and painfully awkward sometimes.

I always thought it was a goat that kicked me over the fence. My mama told me the other day it was a cow. Now I'm sort of scared of both.

Blake Lively is my style icon, and she always has rocking clothes and shoes. She keeps it really simple with hair and makeup, and I try to do the same thing. Onstage, I do a little smokier, a little more contouring, but I still always want to be an approachable and real artist, so I never try to go overboard.

I think that I've just kind of found my niche, if that makes sense. I still write the same, but I feel like I've found what separates me, and I always try to stay in that when I write. It took me a long time to discover that, so I try to be protective.

For a long time, because I'm pretty tall, I was scared to wear heels, but now I wear them all the time. I feel like I'm still discovering my stage style, but I love - well, I'm not a huge color person onstage, but I am in real life. I like short stuff, big heels, fringe, lots of fringe, sometimes sparkle, yeah!

I danced for 10 years. I was on a competitive hip-hop team, but then I, like, grew seven inches in one year - not really, but I grew tall and really lanky, and I lost all my coordination.

I grew up performing in glee club at my school; I was the ostrich in 'Peter Pan,' and then I was super-involved in church choir and worship leading at my church. So I always loved music and was involved with it, but never really thought it was what I wanted to do until I started writing.

I would love to do a duet with Gavin Degraw. Or Ed Sheeran.

I listen to everything. I sing country music, but I listen to different stuff.

I starting writing when I was about 13 or 14 years old.

I grew up on a farm in eastern Tennessee with a very southern lifestyle, so my roots are super country and southern, but my first concert was Britney Spears. I think that you can hear both of those influences in my music.

I wanted to be the girl that talks about getting a guy. I felt like that was a different approach to writing.

I love pop music. I've tried to always be honest about that.

I see little girls at my meet-and-greets who are like, 'Kelsea! It's my first concert and I came to see you.' And I'm thinking, 'I don't want to post anything online that your mom would be mad at me for, because you're important to me.'

The whole heartbeat of the first record is young, which I think is what made it relatable to young girls.

I've studied live shows and artists for so long. I got the tour documentaries and all that and watched them. I love a show. I love an artist that can do all of it.

I really want people to know I'm a songwriter.

The artists that I relate to and love the most are the ones where I can listen to the record, and I can know them better, and for me, that's writing it.

I want to stay where I am. I'm stoked to be a country artist.

I love that on country radio, you can hear a George Strait song, and the next is Sam Hunt. I love that there's such a variety.

I like making people feel pretty.

I was a huge Jonas Brothers fan, unapologetically, when I was 12 or 13.

The Grammys to me, well, that's my peers. That's the industry thinking what I do is good.