By Alyssa Boyd

Every little girl’s dream is to grow up and be in the spotlight, especially those who sing. Little girls spend hours in front of the mirror doing their makeup and primping their hair before gathering mom and dad and prancing into the living room to show them their latest song and dance routine. Many girls carry this passion into their middle school and high school years, when they begin taking singing lessons and staring in school plays. They dream of one day being the center of attention, the person in front of thousands who people came to see. For Ayla Brown, this dream came true.
            In August of 2005, Ayla Brown, at the time a 17-year-old high school student attending private school in Massachusetts, stood in line in the pouring rain for 18 hours at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA, with her mom. She dreamed of making it past the first auditions for the well-known talent search, American Idol, the fifth season. Surrounded by thousands of other people all anxiously awaiting their turn to shine, Brown was extremely anxious.
            “When I was waiting in line during the first auditions, I felt overwhelmingly self-conscious and nervous,” said Brown. “I was afraid of failure. However, there was also a side of me that was incredibly confident in my abilities, and I think it was that confidence that enabled me to go through to the next rounds.”
            For many, the preliminary auditions were also the final auditions. Not for Brown.
She stunned the judges and was chosen to continue along in the search for the next American Idol.
“When I discovered I was moving on to the next round, I could not stop smiling,” said Brown. “My mom and I were jumping up and down and thinking to ourselves how much of a blessing this has become.”
After anxiously awaiting the second round, when the time finally came, Brown once again blew away the judges, and was told she was moving on to Hollywood.
            “I had never been to Hollywood before, so right off the bat I was excited,” said Brown. “I was excited to meet my competition and even more excited to sing in front of people and learn new things.”
            While in Hollywood, Brown was given the opportunity to sing in front of Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell. 
            “The judges were pretty cool,” said Brown. “It was really fun meeting them and being in the same room with famous people.”
            Brown also really enjoyed being around Ryan Seacreast. “He was always there when we were rehearsing for the show,” said Brown. “What I liked the most about him was that he was truly a down to earth guy. He was always joking around with us and relieving the stress of the afternoon. He will be one of the people that I will miss the most.”
            Brown continued to sing her way through the weeks, impressing the judges and audiences with songs such as Christina Aguilera’s “Reflection,” Celine Dion’s “I Want You To Need Me,” and “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield. Sadly, Brown’s fantasy of becoming the next American Idol ended on March 9th, when she was eliminated from the show, ending up in 9th place.
            “For obvious reasons, I was devastated when I got voted off,” said Brown. “I had become more of a confident performer. I truly stepped outside my comfort zone and tried things I never thought I could do. I was really passionate about singing, and I felt that in such little time my dreams were snatched away from me with Ryan Seacrest’s simple words, ‘Ayla, you are going home tonight.’” 
            “Getting voted off the show was very difficult for her… and me,” said Gail Huff, Brown’s mother and a local news reporter for ABC in Boston. “I think she was the first American Idol contestant to cry when she got voted off. That was one of the hardest nights of my life.”
            Despite her sadness, Brown was able to get back on the stage and sing for the crowd one last time.
“The fact that she was able to regain her composure and come back and sing made me very proud,” said Huff. Although Brown was devastated to end her time on American Idol, she looks back on it as a very positive experience.
“American Idol was an amazing experience, and I am not just saying that to sound cliché,” said Brown. “The part I loved the most was probably learning new things about myself that I never knew. When you are thrown into a situation that you are uncomfortable with, you break down so many boundaries and discover what you can really do. Now I have no problem speaking in front of a group of people or on live radio, because I feel like American Idol really prepared me.” 
“I think Ayla matured a lot in the process of competing,” said Huff. “She learned there are rewards for working hard and refusing to give up.”
Brown’s singing career did not end after being on American Idol. After graduating high school that spring, she spent the summer singing at events around the Boston area, while working on writing her own songs. On October 17th, Brown released her own album called Forward, which she is still extremely excited about.
“How many people in their lifetime can say that they have put out a CD and it’s actually being sold in stores and online!” said Ayla. “I would walk into different stores throughout the country and go into the CD section, and there’s my CD. That is definitely an outer body experience I must say.”
Currently, Brown attends Boston College, where she plays Division I basketball for the Lady Eagles.
“Now I am playing basketball for BC, and it is like a dream come true,” said Brown. “Yes, it is hard work. I have no time to have a social life. It’s hard to get work done, but there is nothing like the feeling of walking out on Conte Forum playing in the home games with the band on the side and the cheerleaders cheering you on.”
Although singing in Brown’s passion, she is more than happy to put it on hold to focus on basketball at the moment.
“Yes I want to sing for as long as I can after college,” said Brown. “But for the next four years I am dedicated to helping the BC women’s basketball team get a championship.”
Yes, many little girls dream of being in the spotlight when they are older. And for a lucky few like Ayla Brown, this dream actually came true.