Sonya Kitchell

Sonya went to bars when she was 10, but she didn't need a fake ID. She was playing gigs with her band and impressing the crowd with her soothing, sultry voice. Those first shows soon led to bigger ones, including singing at the Special Olympics and, most recently, playing at SxSW (South by Southwest music festival) in Austin, Texas. Now, the 17-year-old's sippin' lattes for free since she signed a deal with Starbucks Hear Music label for her debut album, Words Came Back to Me, out on April 4th. (Look for it when you order your next Caramel Macchiato!) Low Fat Decaf Lattes are her fave (she admits with a guilty look), but she recently switched to Odwalla Superfood. "It's like a green smoothie and it tastes really good and it's so good you. It has wheatgrass and spirulina and all this good stuff. I'm quite the connoisseur of green smoothies!" she says, laughing. Sonya giggles a lot, and why not? She lives in the boonies of Massachusetts on 45 acres of land, gets tons of support from her fam (her 11-year-old bro wants to be her manager!), and is about to tour the country. No wonder she's our It Chick!

By Marisa Bardach

What bothers you most about being a girl?
My period? I don't know. That's probably it. I'm pretty happy being a girl. I don't think I'll be getting a sex change anytime soon!

What do you like most about being a girl?
I think there's something really wonderful about being a woman. There's more of a motherly, caring kind of thing, and I think a lot of my songs come from this place of wanting not to necessarily help people, but to give something. Maybe it's a female instinct -- who knows?

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