I always thought it was a goat that kicked me over the fence. My mama told me the other day it was a cow. Now I'm sort of scared of both.

Blake Lively is my style icon, and she always has rocking clothes and shoes. She keeps it really simple with hair and makeup, and I try to do the same thing. Onstage, I do a little smokier, a little more contouring, but I still always want to be an approachable and real artist, so I never try to go overboard.

I think that I've just kind of found my niche, if that makes sense. I still write the same, but I feel like I've found what separates me, and I always try to stay in that when I write. It took me a long time to discover that, so I try to be protective.

For a long time, because I'm pretty tall, I was scared to wear heels, but now I wear them all the time. I feel like I'm still discovering my stage style, but I love - well, I'm not a huge color person onstage, but I am in real life. I like short stuff, big heels, fringe, lots of fringe, sometimes sparkle, yeah!

I danced for 10 years. I was on a competitive hip-hop team, but then I, like, grew seven inches in one year - not really, but I grew tall and really lanky, and I lost all my coordination.

I grew up performing in glee club at my school; I was the ostrich in 'Peter Pan,' and then I was super-involved in church choir and worship leading at my church. So I always loved music and was involved with it, but never really thought it was what I wanted to do until I started writing.

I would love to do a duet with Gavin Degraw. Or Ed Sheeran.

I listen to everything. I sing country music, but I listen to different stuff.

I starting writing when I was about 13 or 14 years old.

I grew up on a farm in eastern Tennessee with a very southern lifestyle, so my roots are super country and southern, but my first concert was Britney Spears. I think that you can hear both of those influences in my music.

I wanted to be the girl that talks about getting a guy. I felt like that was a different approach to writing.

I love pop music. I've tried to always be honest about that.

I see little girls at my meet-and-greets who are like, 'Kelsea! It's my first concert and I came to see you.' And I'm thinking, 'I don't want to post anything online that your mom would be mad at me for, because you're important to me.'

The whole heartbeat of the first record is young, which I think is what made it relatable to young girls.

I've studied live shows and artists for so long. I got the tour documentaries and all that and watched them. I love a show. I love an artist that can do all of it.

I really want people to know I'm a songwriter.

The artists that I relate to and love the most are the ones where I can listen to the record, and I can know them better, and for me, that's writing it.

I want to stay where I am. I'm stoked to be a country artist.

I love that on country radio, you can hear a George Strait song, and the next is Sam Hunt. I love that there's such a variety.

I like making people feel pretty.

I was a huge Jonas Brothers fan, unapologetically, when I was 12 or 13.

The Grammys to me, well, that's my peers. That's the industry thinking what I do is good.

My biggest dream is to headline an arena tour.

I've always been a big, bold thinker and a dreamer.

Me and my mom made a deal that if something would happen to help me get my start in music, I could get out of college.

I used to walk around trying to do the Britney Spears growl: 'Oh, baby, baby.'

I'm in this wave with Maddie & Tae and RaeLynn and Mickey Guyton and Cam. We're all kind of finding our niches and becoming successful. I think that it's just been really fun to be with them and do this all together.

Honestly, I was a fan before I got the opportunity to be an artist. I was the kind of fan who would stand in line or post a cover video.

I feel a loyalty to my favorite artists, and to have my fans feel that, for me, is a special bond because I've been there for so long.

There are certain days I will get home, and something will pop up on my Twitter, and I will just cry about it. I get so overwhelmed that I get to do what I do.

My life is truly pop country.

I just want to make the best music I can make.

Getting to do shows with Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, and Sam Hunt is just awesome. It's so inspiring because I grew up such fans of Lady A and Keith, and to be able to sing my songs on the same stage as them and then stand side stage and watch them is just a really special thing.

'Peter Pan,' I think, was a game-changer. That was the first song that really had some heartbeat to it... I think that's the song that got people's attention.

I'm a huge fan of the Chainsmokers - like, huge. Like, I would love to collaborate with them.

The Grammys are just the pinnacle of music.

I went to my first CMA Music Fest when I was 14 and waited in line for two hours to meet two people: Taylor Swift and Hillary Scott from Lady Antebellum. It's very ironic but not accidental that those two people refer to me as their 'little sister' now.

I love having that conversation with someone I've never met before who's enjoying something that I wrote and being able to connect and share that.

The thing that's been most important to me is being interactive with people that are listening to my music.

I wanted to be a vet. I really thought that's what I wanted to do.

I'm not super traditional at all.

I feel like if you just walk with a purpose, people will think you're supposed to be there. That's my life theory.

Women in country music have always been a staple and always been important.

Honestly, I'm such a shoe girl. I like to save money, and I like to spend money on shoes.

I've always been drawn to the message of 'Be yourself. Love yourself.' I need to be reminded of that all time.

It's been really cool to me to watch someone like Sam Hunt, whose lyrics and roots are in country but you can hear that he listens to Drake and Justin Timberlake - and that's OK. It allows songwriters to be more honest because it's like, 'This is who I'm listening to.'

I've never been scared, but I'm very naive.

It's really cool when, in every genre of music, you can listen to a song and know what era it was from.

It's so fun to make up stories, but I find that the songs that I'm most proud of came from a real thing in my life - 'Peter Pan' being one of those.

It wasn't supposed to work - being a new artist, a female artist, an artist on an independent. That's what made it so much sweeter when we hit No. 1.