The story of how Ava Mae joined One Direction for the On the Road Again Tour... and then became so much more than an opening act.
disclaimer: wrote this when I was 16, it has some cringe moments. also, at the beginning of the story Ava is a minor b...
A/N: just as a fun lil chapter, this is Ava's feature in Glamour magazine :) kinda short and kind of not how journalists write at all, but oh well. enjoy!
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Between releasing new music, going on tour, and traveling the world with her boyband member boyfriend, it's a miracle that Ava Mae was able to fit me into her schedule. We'd arranged a coffee shop interview in a cozy little cafe in London. She's a little late, seeming a little frantic as she comes over to greet me. She tells me how she got a little lost on the way as we wait for our coffees to be made.
"I've only been to London one other time, so it's odd having to make my way around by myself. I love it here though. It's such a lovely place. It's home for the next few months, which is strange, but I have a feeling that when it's time to head back to LA, I won't want to leave."
Happiness is practically radiating off of her, which could be felt by practically every person in the room. Nothing but good energy floats about the room, especially since her entrance. I ask her how she's doing right now as we get comfortable at a table with our drinks.
"I'm in a really, really good place right now. I couldn't be happier, really. I'm getting to travel and tour in places that are completely new to me, some of which I hadn't even heard of prior to planning the UK tour. It makes me so excited and eager to start touring in more places around the world. I love it so much. I'm so excited for my fans here to see the show and I'm excited to see them."
Ava Mae wasn't always releasing her own music and touring the world. She started out by making covers on YouTube as a side hobby while she was still in high school. Having quite the following, Ava was constantly uploading videos. It started out as just covers, but once she hit a certain point she made the choice to join the YouTuber community and to expand her channel to more. She remained true to her singing though, keeping her cover postings as a once a week thing. One cover in particular caught the eye of the one and only Harry Styles of One Direction. He tweeted the young singer, praising her cover of the song from One Direction's latest album at the time.
"I think I had like, two and a half million subscribers or something like that on the morning that I posted my cover of 18. A week later, I was past seven million. It's so crazy that one tweet had that kind of effect. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure that everything that's happened to me has really happened. I never in my wildest dreams expected anything like this to happen, and I really owe everything to Harry. He's changed my life in so many ways and I will forever be grateful that he stumbled across my video somehow."
The events that followed Harry's tweet to her seem the craziest to her, she tells me. She was signed to a record label at the new year, as well as signed to an agreement as One Direction's opening act for their On The Road Again Tour in North America. After an EP release, she released her debut album Hit the Lights.
"I graduated from high school with honors and then a week later I released an album. It was complete madness. And with all of that going on, I was planning my set for touring with the boys. I never really sat there and thought about how much went into a tour, but those weeks leading up to hitting the road really showed that there's so many behind the scenes things that you couldn't even imagine. I really feel like that tour prepared me for everything that I've done since doing it. I get so excited about planning tours now. It's so rewarding to work so hard and then be able to actually do the shows in front of people. I can't wait to make more music and tour new stuff. It's such a thrilling feeling getting out on stage every night and singing. I love the energy, its like getting a shot of adrenaline in your veins."
After two albums, she's already excited and ready for the third. She released her two albums in less than a year, proving how much she loves to do her job. It's been a non-stop year for the young star. I asked her what strikes inspiration when she's writing and what she has planned for the third album, but she tells me she's not sure how to answer.
"Well I definitely get inspiration from experience, I think every songwriter does. When you experience things like breakups and new relationships, you go through a lot of different feelings and with songwriting, you can express those feelings through lyrics. As for album three... I'm not really sure where I wanna go with it. I've got some songs that I reserved for this album that are kind of more upbeat than the last two albums, so maybe I'll lean towards more upbeat pop. I'm really not sure though. It'll definitely be different since I'm taking a little while off before writing and recording it. The rest of this year is gonna be busy so I'm trying to slow down a little and breathe."
Her answer about inspiration gets me thinking of relationships in general, then specifically her current relationship. If you don't know who Ava's dating, you've need to get out from under your rock more often. As I ask her if distance is challenging on her and her relationships - family too - she's quick to nod her head.
"When I was touring with the boys, it was super easy to be with Harry because we were together all day every day. I knew that it wouldn't always be that way, especially since we were apart for most of the beginning of our friendship. I guess I underestimated just how hard it would be though. Distance sucks. When I first hit the road, I remember going through a serious wave of being upset like all the time. My mom and my best friend have been my rocks for so long that it broke my heart to be away from them. It still does, but I think I've gotten better at handling it after all the traveling that I've done."
Obviously, with her social media background, Ava constantly has her phone on her. With technology, it's much easier to be away from loved ones. There's always ways to connect. She mentions that Skype and FaceTime are basically the only things that get her through multiple months of being away. However with that level of being connected, being on a phone can become toxic at times.
"Sometimes I'll forget that my life isn't just Instagram pictures and youtube videos. I used to be able to be on my phone all the time, but anymore I'm really careful about being on it for too long. I get so wrapped up in it sometimes that I lose a sense of reality, and that's toxic. When I was doing the American leg of the Hit the Lights Tour, I think I actually went two weeks without checking my phone more than a few times. I would post about the show, text Harry and my parents a little, and then I would shut it off. When I'm on tour, I don't like to be wrapped up in social media. There's so much to do when you're on the road, and it's important to live a little."
We then start to chat about how difficult it can be to ignore hate and to deal with the constant pressures of social media. It's no secret that the internet can be a dark place, and people in the spotlight like Ava experience that first hand.
"From day one of starting my youtube channel, I've always been honest and I've always been true to who I am. I think that's one of the most important things when you're putting yourself out into the world. If you create a false sense of reality, you really do lose your sense of what's real and what's not. Sometimes it can be just as hard to be completely true to yourself though. You see those hate comments and you kind of just feel defeated. Like being yourself isn't enough. What I've learned though is that I should always focus on what I think of me, not what they think of me. When I approach something, I ask myself two questions; the first is always 'is this something that shows me that I'm happy with?' and the second is always 'will this make other people happy?' To get to the second question, the answer for the first one always has to be yes. If it's no, then I don't do it. I don't want to be somebody I'm not. It's important to embrace everything about yourself and I'll always believe that. If somebody else doesn't like what you're doing, then so what? It's your life, live it the way you want - not the way somebody else wants you to.
Another thing with dealing with the hate that I've learned over the past year is that I'm less affected by it when I'm truly happy. I've surrounded myself with such great people through this journey so far and I feel like that's been a major key to everything I've done. I don't think I could have made it this far if it wasn't for my friends and family. I've literally been grounded from my phone before because I wasn't doing very well one week. And I should also say that it definitely wasn't my parents that grounded me, it was definitely my boyfriend. I thank him for doing things like that, though. My health and my happiness is what's most important, always. I'll always be striving to make everybody else happy though, that's in my blood. I think spreading happiness is one of the greatest things a person can do. Love is what we need more of in the world, and I'm so incredibly lucky to be able to spread love and to be surrounded by love all the time. I feel so blessed and so thankful."
