"What would you like to be when you grow up, Loren?"

"A singer."

There was no denying that Loren Acres had a voice. Growing up in West Yorkshire, England, she impressed all of those around her. From the moment she could speak, music was all that seemed to come out of her mouth. Elisabeth Acres was a single mother who raised Loren and her brother Michael on very little money and a lot of help from her own parents. After divorcing from her husband, Christopher, when Loren was only five, she and her children moved in with Loren's grandparents. Elisabeth never had the time to fuss with her children about what they wanted to do with their lives, so she did her best to give them what they wanted. Her children were the absolute opposite of each other. Michael, of course, being into sports obviously did not understand Loren's love for music.

The first time Loren ever truly realized she had a voice was when her Grandfather was working in the basement of their home in his work room. The radio was playing and Loren went to keep him company. Hearing the voices on the speaker, she did her best to imitate what she was hearing. Her keen ear made it easy to match the notes and the melody. Immediately, her Grandfather took notice of this and he stopped what he was doing to listen. Loren had a voice. A real voice. Even when she was only six years old. So he consulted with his daughter, Elisabeth, and pleaded that they do something about this little talent that had been born into the Acres family.

Loren went to public school and was put into an after-school program for music and vocal lessons. During her school days, she was a very quiet and meek child. Friends didn't come easy for her and a lot of children thought she was quite peculiar. There was definitely something different about Loren and that's because she was different. She had something inside of her that the others didn't and she never realize that potential until she attended that after-school program. There she was able to flourish. Her true personality came out when she was singing and learning about music. She stayed in this routine of being the weird one at school but breaking out of her shell after-school up until she was sixteen.

Being classically trained was hard. It took a lot of time and effort and by the time Loren was a teenager, she didn't want to do it anymore. Her teenage rebellion had kicked in, full force, and she was ready to find another passion. Of course, without many friends and being the odd girl at school, it was hard for her to actually become a social butterfly. So she took to the internet. This was something very new to Loren, but she found herself in a space that accepted her for who she was. She also found herself stumbling upon a music community of singers and songwriters. People who had the same interests and love for what she did. Music had found her again and Loren realized that it was her lot in life. So she accepted, which might've been the best choice of her life.

Loren started to sing and record demos and place them online for the new friends she made. Of those friends, was a certain boy, whom she found out only lived an hour away. They began to exchange emails and songs and phone calls, until it turned into meeting in person. This was the first boy Loren actually let into her life and world. immediately, she fell in love with him, only to have her heart shattered in pieces when she found out he had a girlfriend that he'd been hiding from her. It destroyed her and it was the first broke heart she'd ever received.

After that blow, Loren decided to stop posting music and stay away from the community of people online. However, six months after doing so, she decided to check her email. There were so many "Please come back", "I miss you", and "I'm sorry's" but the one that stood out the most was from someone who would change her life. It was from a record label who was absolutely impressed by her voice and vocal range and wanted to meet with her to discuss signing her to the label. Loren was about to graduate High School and really had no plans of attending college, so she made the decision to do it. She was freshly 18 at the time and didn't need any consent from her mother. What else did she have to lose? Nothing.

It was the right move. Loren was signed and she went on a year long journey to record her first album '19', which was released in 2008. Over the course of that year, Loren wrote and recorded an album that turned out to be a story of heartbreak. She found that making the album was extremely therapeutic in healing from the man who broke her heart. The album ended up going platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. it truly put Loren on the map for her career -- something she never, in her entire life, expected. She was now able to support her family and herself. All of the effort she'd put into being classically trained truly helped her, when it came down to it.

With her first album being such a big hit, Loren went on to tour the world and win awards and it was only the beginning. In 2011, she released another album '21', deciding that she would keep calling her albums the age she was at the time she recorded, as it would be symbolic for her years down the road. She thought that she would be able to listen to the album years from then and remember where she was in her life. Just like her first album, her sophomore album blew up, but this time, even bigger. The success of '21' was one for the record books, literally, as she was mentioned in the Guinness World Records book and was the first female in history to have three singles in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. '21' was a huge album and time for Loren. Again, it was a story of love and loss, as being put into the spotlight so quickly opened many doors to meeting people who helped and hurt her. It made her very cautious but also made a way for her to experience life in it's fullest.

After all of her success with her second record with touring and awards and appearances, Loren needed time off. Time went by so fast and it was a whirlwind, exhausting every morsel of her being. Most people were shocked by her success, but no one was more shocked than she was. It all felt like a dream, being the odd girl from West Yorkshire, to now a household name and her voice being so distinct and loved by many. Loren vowed to take, at least, three to four years off, so that she could catch up with her family and live a normal life. Doing just that, Loren found that odd girl within her, again, and she embraced it. This time, in a better way than she had before. It was inspiring to her now and she would use that to create more music. Always writing. Always inspiring.