Wallsend high school student Shaye Quinn has been singing since she was a toddler. Her mum, Vanessa, remembers her and her sister singing along to Abba as young children, and the performing spirit has never left.
In August, Shaye will board an international flight for the first time in her life, and travel to Florida to sing at Disney World after impressing judges at a Sydney talent scouting competition earlier this year.
It's the opportunity of a lifetime, the 17-year-old neurodivergent teenager said, and could lead to a career in the performing arts.
Shaye, the youngest of three Quinn children, was born with a hereditary form of dwarfism and overcame extensive surgery as a baby. She is deaf and legally blind in one eye, and lives with a chronic skeletal condition that impacts the strength of her bones.
At 20 months old, the bones of her skull were hardening faster than they should, leaving only millimetres for her developing brain to grow, prompting major surgery.
The young Hunter performer has, through every challenge, defied the predictions of her specialists to reach ever greater achievements.
"It has been amazing to see how far she has come," Mrs Quinn, who shares the same condition as her daughter, said.
Shaye took her talents to Sydney toward the end of February this year to compete in the NEXT Star Production Showcase, put on by the US-based Talent Scout Agency, and was quickly selected as a finalist to travel to Orlando for the production company's international showcase next month - an event that has helped launched the careers of young Disney stars in shows like Coop and Cami Ask the World and Diary of a Future President.
Shaye will perform a track from the Disney hit Moana, titled 'An Innocent Warrior', which she said reached her on a deep level.
"The song is a message from a spirit or ancestor sent particularly to Moana to tell her about her mission," Shaye explained, "I have always wanted to know what my mission is; what is the goal, the purpose I have in life.
"Singing allows me to connect with people on deeper levels and especially with songs that you can relate to. It's about connecting with the emotion and experience of the whole thing; connecting with people and telling them who you are through you music."
Shaye's family have launched a GoFundMe account to help raise support for Shaye's journey overseas.
"Shaye has always loved to sing, perform and dance, despite being deaf and all her other conditions," Mrs Quinn wrote, "She never lets anything hold her back and wants to try anything and everything."
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