Yesterday I was lucky enough to see the Broadway tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, a musical following the life of Carole King up until she performed at Carnegie Hall in '71. It made me truly realize how under-appreciated songwriters are, which made me oddly happy because the very first person I looked up to is a songwriter, that was over ten years ago. As an eight-year-old watching, a then widely popular show called American Idol and eight years old me looked up so an under-appreciated singer/songwriter named Kara DioGuardi. Haven't heard of her? Maybe you've heard songs written by her, Hot Mess - Cobra Starship (64th on US Billboard Hot 100), Pity Party - Melanie Martinez (40th on US Mainstream Top 40), Sober - P!nk (15th on US Billboard Hot 100), Mama's Song - Carrie Underwood (56th on US Billboard Hot 100), or maybe you grew up in the key Disney era ('07-'12), We Rock - Camp Rock (33rd on US Billboard Hot 100) or one of the many Hannah Montana songs Kara wrote/co-wrote, We Got the Party - Hannah Montana (from the album Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus which made #1 on the Billboard Hot 200) and He Could Be The One - Hannah Montana (10th on US Billboard Hot 100).

As an almost twenty-year-old, I vividly remember that day in 4th grade when making a poster all about me and putting 'someone I will forget about soon' as someone I look up to. After eight years, I learned that the women I have looked up to for almost half my life happened to be a fellow Mainer, it continues to feel so surreal to me that in the same state as me for years has been the women who first inspired me, who first made me stand up for admiring someone I didn't know personally. Ten years later, the 'someone I will forget about soon' still hasn't happened yet, in the past ten years, I have felt so proud to say that my first famous idol (no pun intended) is an underrated songwriter and person in general, Kara DioGuardi.