Teen Musician Tells AMS Students to Inspire Change 1 Person at a Time

A Massachusetts teenaged singer/songwriter made her first return to Amherst Middle School on Tuesday to perform for students and share a message of how to inspire change as a young person.

Hayley Reardon, 16, who said she lives in a small community just outside Boston, began writing and singing her own songs at 11 years old, about the same age as the fifth and sixth graders she was performing for midday during a three-part performance.

Reardon told the students she was always very shy and timid growing up, but finding music changed her.

"It's been the most amazing and empowering experience and it alls started with finding one outlet," Reardon said.

Reardon's performance was an opportunity to kick off the school year on a note promoting the school's commitment to creating a community of respect and kindness, according to a press release sent ahead of Reardon's performance. 

In the cafeteria, a banner with the school's motto for the year hangs over the windows. It reads "Have the Courage to Care."

During her four song setlist, Reardon, who recently released her debut album called "Where the Artists Go," spoke to students about finding a way to express themselves, working through their fears and the importance of realizing that there is no need to take on changing the whole world when you can work on changing it one person at a time. 

She told a story of her mentor and how she was talking about feeling insignificant and his advice to her was that "you can't shine your flashlight at the sun and see the light." She said she realized then, through his words that she could make a difference even if it was to just one person at a time.

"That day sort of changed everything for me and set me on the path I am on," Reardon said. 

The teen was named Bostonian of the Year in 2012 by the Boston Globe who described her as "a confident, radiant teenage singer/songwriter who is helping to pen the next  chapter of the Boston folk scene...while Reardon is rapidly making a name for herself under the stage lights, it could be said that she's having a bigger impact on her peers across the country as a leading spokesperson for bullying prevention.  By pairing her music with a message of collective responsibility, she has become an effective teen-to-teen ambassador, sought after by schools nationwide."

Reardon is a peer spokesperson for PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center.

She spoke briefly about how bullying first came into her life, through an experience where a close friend was being bullied by her peers. Until that time, Reardon said she'd never had a tangible experience with bullying and she used that experience to write a song that she later sent to PACER, which is how she became involved with the organization.

Watch Reardon speak and sing to the AMS students in the video clips above.