The Untold Truth About Gabby Barrett

Gabby Barrett was born in a town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2000. According to Penn Live, she has seven siblings — three sisters and four brothers. During her stint on "American Idol," she spoke openly about getting bullied so much as a child that she had to switch to online school. For her, music was somewhat of an escape.

Starting at the age of 11, Barrett played around four shows every week. "I [played] many grocery stores," she told The Boot. When she was 17, she got scouted to compete in "American Idol." Even though she passed through the ranks and earned a top-three spot, it didn't mean instant success. "A lot of people assume that ... after the show, you're set," Barrett told The Boot, "and that's not the case at all. You go back to almost square one."

After getting rejected by Nashville's record labels, the country singer took things into her own hands and recorded her album. "'Idol' is a platform that you come off of singing cover songs ... Labels and people didn't know if I could write original music or anything," she told The Boot. So she put her energy toward writing songs to prove she had what it took to snag a spot on a label roster. As we all now know, her hard work paid off big time.