More than music: how writing songs coaxed two shy students out of their shells

Now the Year 10 student gets on stage and performs her own songs for a live crowd.

Alara and fellow Bulli High School student Penny Church, in Year 9, participated in their school's mentorship program called Multiverse.

Last year's program featured 19 students who attended weekly classes to dream-up, write and then professionally record a pop song with established Illawarra musicians.

It will soon begin again at Bulli High, with plans to make it a statewide competition by next term.

With the support of Shining Bird's Russell Webster, Penny and Alara last year released their own singles.

Alara's was called Because of You, while Penny wrote and released Goodbye My Love through local record company Silhouette.

They both said the program helped them with more than just music.

"It's made me more confident," Penny said.

"I now play in front of the school a lot."

Alara says the program helped her get "out of her shell".

"My parents didn't even know that I could sing," she said.

"Confidence was my biggest issue, I never put myself out there," she said.

"I'm less scared of performing in front of people."

Both credit Mr Webster with helping them finish their songs, giving practical and moral support.

"I went in there thinking that I'm not going to be able to write a song like I wrote a song in two weeks and I was like 'this is no good'," Alara said.

"He was actually, 'no this is really good', he helped me figure out what exactly the vibe was ... and the chords at the end because I didn't know how to finish it."

"He helped me with the bridge of my song, finding like chords that suited the rest of the song," Penny said.

Other mentors in the program include Zoltan Budai from Mental as Anything, Jeb Taylor from Farmer and the Owl, and Grammy-nominated artist Ciaran Gribbin.