The camera is set up. The ukulele is tuned. The song has been practiced a million times. There are a few mess ups while recording but the end product is just right. Finally, it is uploaded on the computer and published to YouTube.

This is the process many YouTube cover singers take. But Marysa Leopando, sophomore, takes a different approach. She writes her own song.

Beginning of July, Leopando wrote a song regarding the hardships she faced when growing apart from her best friend.

“I was sad about it, so I formulated my thoughts and just wrote half of the song in the summertime,” Leopando said. “I finished it recently because I thought it was worth finishing.”

Leopando’s singing dates back to when she was younger, and she said she has been singing ever since.

“When I was in middle school, I’d post a lot and those videos are now private because [they’re] embarrassing,” Leopando said. “Now I only post singing videos every so often. It’s just something I can do if I want to.”

Leopando is unsure of what she would like to do in the future but knows she wants music to be a part of it.

“It’s a really difficult thing to get into, so I’m not counting on it,” Leopando said. “But it would be cool if singing was somehow involved.”

When recording the live performance of the song, Leopando brought along her friend Jenna Lensmeyer, sophomore, for support.

“Although we’ve had a few rough patches, we’ve been best friends since fourth grade,” Lensmeyer said. “I moved to St. Louis six years ago and I didn’t know anyone. I went to one of my brother’s soccer games, and Marysa happened to be there.”

Although it was known throughout grade school that Leopando sang, Lensmeyer was unaware of her YouTube channel and was quite impressed when she heard her friend sing her original song.

“I got goosebumps,” Lensmeyer said. “I was incredibly shocked. It was cool to hear something new and so different and beautiful and I just really loved it.”

Jason Winter, choir teacher, was also quite impressed by Leopando’s talents.

“From a musical standpoint and from an ability standpoint, it’s just really solid, great singing,” Winter said. “[It was] very expressive. It has this really nice feel of having this emotional idea but also be kind of like a feel-good type of piece at the same time.”

Winter said Leopando is a great student and great person. He advises her to go out to Nashville as soon as she can in order to put her music out there in order to be discovered.