For the past four years, audiences have watched Laura play an aspiring singer and songwriter on Austin & Ally. But in real life, she’s been doing it for three times as long. “I always wanted to be in music,” she shares. “Always. I remember reading the part of Ally and thinking, she’s really like me. She’s awkward, she likes writing songs, she loves school – I connect with her. I wanted it so badly. And then I got the role and it was a dream come true because it was a show about music. It was like two of my favorite things coming together. It was perfect.”
As it would turn out, Laura had even more in common with Ally than she initially realized. Believe it or not, she was shy, and even uncertain about pursuing her dream. “The acting business and the music business are completely different,” she explains. “Just because you’re in one world, doesn’t mean you’ll be in the other. I was always secretly writing, but I think I still wasn’t totally secure with myself musically. It was this conflicting mindset of, ‘I want this so badly’ and ‘I’m so insecure about it.’”
But as her character’s insecurities dissipated, so did her own. “As Ally gained more confidence in her music ability over the course of the show, I was getting more confident in the writing sessions I was doing,” she shares. “When we were filming the last season, I was like, okay, I’m ready. I’m ready for this.”
And so was Big Machine Records. After the colossal success of Taylor Swift’s album,1989, the label decided that it wanted to sign its first pop artist. And they wanted it to be Laura. “The day we announced it was the best day of my life,” she smiles. “I had a record deal and then I won a Kids Choice Award, Ross won,Austin & Allywon; it was literally the best day of my life.”
So while die-hard fans may be upset that it’s the end ofAustin & Ally, it’s just the beginning for Laura. “My songs are about my experiences: relationships, working in the music business, and finding yourself,” she says. “I’m compiling what the past three years have been like for me and putting that out there. It’s so exciting and so awesome, but I’m being as selective as possible because I want to tell the story I want to tell.”
Photo: Joe Magnani
Glam: Valerie Noble
Styling: Robiat Balogun (Earrings: Vilaiwan Blue Top: N12H)
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