TOWAMENCIN- What does home mean to you? To some, it can be the mountains, the beach, or even a hidden place in the forest. But at the end of the day, no matter what specific thing it may be, it will always be something that holds all of your best memories, or perhaps everything and everyone you love. For North Penn High School sophomore Ciara Grace, the stage is and will always be her home.

As a toddler, Grace was pretty much a natural as soon as she walked on the stage. It was as if she was made to be a performer. She grew up watching her mom perform in concerts and instantly fell in love with being on stage.

“My mom used to bring me to her concerts when I was little and she used to invite me on stage sometimes just to sing with her. There’s pictures of me singing at the Philly fall festival and there was a pretty decent crowd out there. I just remember being up on that stage and loving it,” Grace remembered.

The beauty and the art of singing was what won Grace over. It became something she loved so much, words couldn’t even describe her love for it. You could just tell by the energy she gave off when she spoke about singing.

“I always just loved the fact that you could tell a story, and it could sound so melodious,” expressed Grace.

Grace enjoys writing her own music and gets inspired by real life occurrences. She began writing music when she was 10. So far, she’s written over 100 songs but has a few favorites. Currently, she’s working on her own album with the help of her dad.

“I feel like it has to come to you first. You have to want to write the song in that moment and for me, when you feel something kind of intense and you’re like ‘hey that might be cool to tell a story about’ or maybe I’ll hear lyrics sometimes in my head and I think I could make something around that,” explained Grace.

Being able to perform her own music is just a major bonus for Grace. It gives her the opportunity to relate to others or to express her emotions by doing what she loves the most. She’s been performing her own music for at least a year now.

“I just like the idea of being able to share the things I’ve experienced and maybe if someone experiences the same thing, it’ll make them feel better or feel a certain way about something. I just like singing the music itself and knowing that I wrote it and that people are going to be listening to it,” Grace said.

Her most memorable performance was when she wrote her first song on the ukulele at the age of 10. Her mom was performing in a festival and was friends with the guy who managed it and she was able to perform it because of that.

Grace gets more opportunities to perform because of her mom. When she was a kid and often performed during her mom’s concerts, people would give her opportunities so that she could perform.

Grace has a love for Amy Winehouse’s music and enjoys her music style. She also enjoys singing alternative style music.

She was also involved in chorus and used to take voice lessons but due to how much time they both took up, she now just practices on her own constantly.

Grace used to play the cello in elementary and middle school. But now she’s mostly singing while playing the guitar and the piano.

With singing being one of her favorite things to do, Grace hopes that she could make a future out of it.

Singing is not the only thing big in the Grace household. Her family has also always had horses. Currently, they have 2 that they keep in the barn. Grace also began horseback riding when she was 4 and competes in a lot of shows with her instructor and won Grand Champion at a couple of big shows. She doesn’t plan on competing for the rest of her life but still hopes to have horses.

One of the most recent opportunities that Grace has been given was the chance to perform in a showcase in New York on May 6th alongside other singers.

“It’s called the Songwriters Circle, which is basically just a round of people who are performing stuff that they wrote. It’s basically just you sitting on a stage with 3 other people and you all sing your songs in order. This is actually the first gig where someone has reached out to me and asked me to do. They emailed my mom and in that industry or the circle I’m in now, a lot of people know her so they asked,” explained Grace.

She hopes that this will allow her to find more opportunities to perform and maybe even help her pursue a career.

“I just hope I could do something I love for the rest of my life. It sounds a little ambitious but that would be great if I could keep doing this successfully,” said Grace.