Her Mom Said She’d Never Learn It, So She Bought a Ukulele With Her Own Birthday Money. A Year Later She Stunned the Judges

For her 11th birthday, Grace VanderWaal asked for just one thing: a ukulele.

Her mother said no. She was sure Grace would never really learn to play it.

So Grace used her own birthday money and bought one herself.

Nobody gave her lessons. She sat in her room in Suffern, New York, watched videos on YouTube and taught herself, chord by chord. Soon she was writing her own songs. She played at small open mic nights near home and posted videos online that only a few people watched.

A year later, she was standing on the stage of America’s Got Talent.

She was 12 years old, small, with a short blonde bob and a ukulele that looked almost too big for her. Simon Cowell asked what she was going to sing.

A song she had written herself, she said. It was called “I Don’t Know My Name.”

The judges smiled politely. Then she started to play.

Her voice was nothing like they expected. Raspy, warm, a little quirky, and completely her own. The song was about being a young girl who is still figuring out who she is. Funny and honest and sweet at the same time.

By the end, the audience was on its feet.

Howie Mandel did not even wait. He reached over and slammed the golden buzzer, sending Grace straight to the live shows. Gold confetti rained down on a 12-year-old who looked like she could not believe what was happening.

Then Simon said the words that went around the world.

“I think you’re going to be the next Taylor Swift.”

The audition aired on June 7, 2016. The video was watched more than 100 million times and became one of the most trending videos on YouTube that year.

Grace kept writing her own songs all season. On September 14, 2016, she won the whole competition. She was only the second female winner in the show’s history, and the second child.

That December she released her first EP, Perfectly Imperfect. It became the best-selling EP of the year in America. Later she toured the world, played Madison Square Garden and starred as the lead in the Disney film Stargirl.

All because a little girl was told she would never learn the ukulele, and decided to find out for herself.

Did anyone ever tell you that you couldn’t do something you loved? Tell us in the comments.