"Take a Picture, It'll last longer". I'm sure you've heard that infamous come-back line many times right? Well if not, or to refresh your memory, that's the line your spit back at a guy who's been oogling you and staring are your assets instead of your face! My song "Take a Picture" is a play on that phrase and the selfie/instagram/social media obsessed culture we live in today.

While living in NYC, it never ceased to amaze me, that in walking a mere 3 blocks out my door, I'd receive upwards of 10 catcalls or inappropriate looks from men as I passed by (undressing me with their eyes, checking me out and licking their lips etc). How has this become normal and okay? I was not down with that! And none of my girlfriends were either. I always wanted to have some clever come-back or sharp quip to yell back at these men and that's essentially where my song "Take A Picture" came to life.

Each verse of the song is pretty much an exact conversation or experience I had with various dudes while living in NYC. It's an objection to the inappropriate ways many men feel is acceptable to hit on women with. Undressing you with their eyes like a piece of meat, calling you "baby", talking mad game at you, trying to get you drunk, coping a feel - just being sleazy! "Take a Picture" is my sassy and clever response to these dudes.

The song is also a statement about self-respect. Knowing your worth as a woman, celebrating that and not letting men treat you like an object. It's an anthem for me, and I hope for other young girls too. We know we're beautiful, we know we're smart, we know men are fascinated by us but the cat calling and sleazy come-ons are disrespectful, tasteless, unoriginal and just go to show that you're not in our league!

It only took one session for me to write the song, seeing as it stemmed from personal experience and is something I lived every single day. I was even impressed that my male producer, GoodWill, completely understood the concept of the song and was totally into it. The hardest part of bringing this song to life was that I actually had way too much to say on the topic! I wrote probably four pages of potential verses of the song and all of it was based on personal interactions or experiences. My producer at one point told me that the only way I was gonna be able to fit in even half of the lyrics I had, would be to rap it. I started laughing when he told me this, for I am a singer not a rapper but I abruptly stopped when I realized he was serious. Dead serious! I was terrified of this idea. However, I knew he was right. I actually felt out the verse rhythm very easily and developed a sort of "talk-sing" delivery for each verse. I wouldn't call it rapping, more like "singing with flow" and I nailed it in only a couple of takes.