“I was still in college when I first started touring,” she says. “I would play a sold out show opening for one of my favorite artists, and then I would be in the green room, like submitting an essay. It was very Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus core.” In some ways it was a fantasy. In other ways, it was a reality check. Touring wasn’t glamorous, she found, it was exhausting and sometimes even embarrassing. But getting the chance to share her music with the audiences makes the hard shows worth it — so does hearing what her songs mean to people.