Hi, this is Jen Landis, founder of Pincurl Girls and this is the GIRLBRAVE Podcast. Today We're talking with Lizzie who shares her guitar, playing skills, her song writing, and how she's maneuvered middle school with gaining friends and losing friends and all of that friend drama. So let's get to it. Here we go.

Hi, Lizzie. How are you today?

Good. How are you?

Good. Thank you so much for spending the time with me this afternoon for this podcast.

Yeah, I was really excited.

Great. How old are you and what grade are you in?

I am 13 years old and I'm in eighth grade.

How is eighth grade?

It's pretty good so far, but we're still pretty early into the year. So a lot could happen.

Is there a lot more homework in eighth grade than there is in seventh and sixth?

I wouldn't say necessarily. I would just say it's harder. It's a little harder in eighth grade, but the homework hasn't been too bad so far.

I know you are a musician because you have played your guitar for me. Tell me when you started playing guitar and what got you interested in it.

I started playing guitar when I was in third grade, so I don't know how old I would be like nine or 10, around that age. Interestingly I started playing it's because I thought it would be cooler if I played guitar. I wanted to have something cool to say. So I started playing guitar.

Did your family own a guitar or what made you choose guitar?

Yeah, so my dad said like playing guitar since like high school. And then my mother also had a guitar and I used to take piano lessons when I was little. So I was already sort of music oriented. And so playing guitar was just one of those things of like, Oh, maybe this would be fun.

Tell me about what you're doing with it now, do you write songs? Are you recording anything?

Yeah. So I do write songs. I have one song. We're going to take it to a recording studio in a couple of weeks, so that's exciting. But before that I have my guitar teacher, he has a sort of little recording set garage band thing. So I would record some of my covers and other songs that I've written in there.

What's the process like for writing a song?

Ooh. I guess I would say, I always start out with finding a melody, finding align, I guess for it. That's why it's so much easier to write music for it. That's sort of how I start out and then I always try to figure out exactly what I want to write the song about. So whether it be about love better, it'd be about like heartbreaking. Now I want to figure that out and then I can start writing lyrics about things I've heard, sayings and stuff like that. I just sort of went to outline it.

Do you have love and heartbreak right now?

No, actually, well, I mean, I guess there's been, I've been through some tough times currently, so there's I have a couple of sad songs an but just overall I really enjoy writing and I just like to write things that I can relate to and because I can relate to them. They're easier to write. That's right.

What is the song about that you're going to record here next?

So the song that I'm going to record is it's basically about losing people. So whether that be interpreted, however you like, but it was triggered me writing that song was because my grandfather died earlier this year. And so that sort of set off the domino effect.

Does the song writing help you cope with those emotions?

Yeah, it's just another way for me to really speak. Sometimes it's hard for me to be able to express those feelings. So in song form, I think it's a little easier.

Yeah. How long does it take to write a song? Does it just come to you as a burst of inspiration and you can't write fast enough or do you work on it right for a couple of weeks?

It really depends. I'll have one song that I'm writing on and I can get a verse of course, another verse down in like an hour and then I suddenly can't write anymore and it takes me weeks to finish it. And sometimes I can finish them in a couple of days. I can finish them in an hour, you know, it's just, it really just depends.

I find music and writing music and just coming up with the melodies, absolutely genius work because it seems like everything is already out there. Right. To be able to come up with something new. It just it's just mind boggling to me.

Yeah. I guess I feel like that sometimes too. There's so many things that are so many things out there that it's like, have I heard this before? Is, am I just thinking of this from something else? You know? But it really is fun and I really do enjoy it.

How many hours a day do you practice or maybe minutes?

It really varies. I would say I have some of their after school activities too, but I would say at like half an hour, a day and then sometimes on the weekend, I'll do it a couple times a day. So I would say like half an hour per session of new practicing.

So what other activities do you have?

I play volleyball, so I guess that's my other activity.

When did you start playing volleyball?

I started in the sixth grade.

How is sports for you? I know for me personally, I was always intimidated by starting the sports and doing a new team. Did you find that true or were you just like gung ho go for it?

I find that very, very true. I only had volleyball because I knew some friends on the team. I'm not the most like extroverted person. I would say I can't do this friends, but in general meeting new people, I wouldn't say so. So I did it because I had some other friends and it's, it was nerve wracking. It was really scary. Like you, it's hard just doing something where you don't really know how it's gonna turn out.

Do you have a saying that you say to yourself that talks you into it?

Um I guess I just, not necessarily. I just like to think that it's going to be okay and I like to strive to get better, I guess just not falling behind is one of those things that I really don't like doing. I guess don't call hide and keep going is one of my things.

I like that.

So sixth grade was middle school. That was a little bit hard for you. Is that true?

Yeah.

Yeah. Tell me a little bit about it.

Just a lot of friend drama. I did sixth grade stinks. I know it's like crazy. You're going into middle school and coming from fifth grade, you're like, Oh yes, sixth grade, like, I feel so grown up, but then you get there and you're like, maybe not.

There's just a lot of new territory. Everyone's sort of fighting to find their place in it. So it really takes a while to find your group and stuff to now there's bumps in the long road. I lost some friends in sixth grade and made some new friends and I got hurt along the way, but I guess that's part of growing up and I learned a lot of stuff. I got a lot of valuable lessons from sixth grade.

What was it like when you were going through it, like losing a friend or something, would it be something where they were just being mean? And then you decided that that's probably not a good friend for you?

I don't know if it was necessarily that it was more over caught between two sides. If that makes sense. And so I took one side and it didn't necessarily turn out well for me. So I, in the end I ended up sort of just, you know, distancing myself from them. And I think I've grown a lot from that.

And I definitely feel better about, you know almost, I wouldn't say cutting them off, but you know, distancing myself for that.

So if there was another girl going into sixth grader is starting in sixth grade right now. And she's first starting to deal with those friend dramas. From your perspective, what advice would you give her?

Ooh, that's rough. I guess thinking about it from my perspective, what I would have told myself, if I was going into sixth grade, stick with people who make you happy, if you feel stressed out around someone and you feel like you're walking on eggshells, it probably not the best person to be hanging out with, you know?

Your relationships and friendships are supposed to be to help you get better, to help you grow, to make you happy and know? So if you're feeling stress and you're feeling hurt by them, they're not really working out that way.

Yeah. So what do you say to them, if you realize that now, how do you tell them that? Or do you just kind of distance yourself away and you have any ideas on that?

I would definitely say what I've done in the past was I basically distanced myself. So it sort of almost happens in my case, it happened both ways. We just both ended up growing apart and distancing ourselves. And I think that was for the best, but I want the non confrontation route and distanced myself.

Do you feel like there's a lot of peer pressure in middle school?

Definitely. Definitely a lot of peer pressure. Just there was a lot of peer pressure to fit in. So I completely, I almost completely changed myself just to fit in. So I dressed different. I like wore makeup and I just tried to change myself to be cooler and to say what was popular. And I think I'm happier now than I was back then, because I'm trying to, starting to find myself and starting to find people who make me happy. But yeah, peer pressure is a big thing and I would say, just stay true to yourself.

Yeah. That's hard to do. Isn't it like just to be in the middle of it and be like, you know what, I'm okay. That's your deal? Where do you think that peer pressure comes from? I mean, do you think it's one person or one group of friends that does that or is it just the way the world is?

Sadly enough, I think it's just the way the world is. It's human nature to try and fit in to be in a group. And so, you know, I think that's just how it works, which stinks. I mean, peer pressure is known as a good thing, but it's most people go through it.

So do you think that it's ease up in seventh and eighth grade or did it just start easing up that peer pressure feeling in eighth grade?

I would say just eighth grade. Seven. Grade is also a little rough, but eighth grade, I feel as though people are starting to mature at least a little bit, most people are. So I think it's getting easier. I hope it's easier in high school, but I mean, I never know.

You never know, but then so long, I don't really remember and I didn't have a middle school. I went to a school that had like first through eighth grade, it was kind of transitioned into just high school.All right. So this podcast is called GIRLBRAVE and Lizzie. I know you are brave and I would love to hear your definition of being brave.

My definition of being brave, doing something out of your comfort zone, but also just to be able to break that norm and just to be yourself. I think that in of itself is being brave. I would definitely say that being fearless and being able to be yourself in a world where people want to be the same.

You have such a great light coming from you since the day I met you. I just absolutely love your spirit.

Thank you.

Will you play us a song on the ukulele?

Okay. Anything in particular, would you like to hear one of my songs? Yes. I want to hear one of your songs.

[[Ukulele Struming, Lizzie sings ]]

That's brilliant. Your voice is so beautiful.

Thank you.

What does it feel like to share that with the world? Share that song?

Um it's definitely nerve wracking. Just because, I mean, it's something that I did and I don't really know how other people like it, but so I would say it's scary, but it's also a little exciting. Especially, since I'm getting recorded soon, it's starting to feel a little real.

I would love to hear kind of what you tell yourself to just push past that fear and just put it out there anyway.

I definitely say to myself, not all people will like, you know, it's one of those things not everyone's going to have to like everything you do, but I like it. It makes me happy.

I love it. All right, so I have some fun questions now. Alright. Jeans or leggings?

Ohhh, leggings.

Salty or sweet?

Sweet.

Reading or Netflix.

Netflix.

Who do you admire most and why?

Um it's a hard question, I guess I would say. I really, I really admire my parents but I really admire my dad. He's I guess, gone through a lot. He's in the military, so I admire his bravery for doing that. And he's been such a big inspiration and helpful through my musical path.

If you were to have one super power, what would you like it to be?

Um I don't know. I guess I would say maybe it's hard. Perhaps like super strength would be pretty cool.

That would be pretty cool. What's the last book that you've read?

The last book I read a I plus book I read was Lucky Broken Girl.

And who is your favorite musician?

That's really hard. I guess someone I really liked, I guess someone I like currently. I like Lenny Kravitz since pretty cool.

Yeah. He's pretty cool. Well, that's all the questions I have for you today, Lizzie. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah, you will definitely have to send me that recording when it's out there so I can share it on the podcast. Okay. Okay. Okay. Good luck with everything.

Thank you. Okay, bye.

Thanks for joining us on the GIRLBRAVE podcast. Go to PincurlGirl.com to hear more interviews with inspiring girls. And if you want to get on our daily texts list, go ahead and click the encouraging text tab at the top. We'll see you next time.