Teen creates her own summer job

WARSAW, Ind. (WANE) - In some ways, Ivory West is an average 16-year-old. In the summer between her sophomore and junior years of high school, she's taking Driver's Ed classes and loves going to TinCaps games. But, she's also blossoming into a sought-after musician, making money doing what she loves - singing and writing songs.

"I'm trying to branch out and not just write songs about boys," West said.

But, her love songs appear to be working. The teen's written around 40 original songs and has three CDs. She sells those when she performs. Her calendar is also packed with more than 65 gigs a year. The summers are especially busy.

"When I got to working age, [I realized] maybe I don't have to get a job. This is my job," West said. "It's really cool I can do something I like to do."

It all started when West was 11 years old and wanted to try out the guitar. Her parents got her lessons and she took off.

"After her first lesson she could play "Sweet Home Alabama." She picked it up really quickly," Rod West, Ivory's father, said.

West had written her first song a month later.

"And I wrote another one and another one," West said.

She lived with her parents above the family's hair salon in Warsaw, providing the perfect captive audience to test out new material.

"I would bring my guitar down if I just wrote a song and say, 'Hey, what do you think of this,'" she laughed.

West went to Sweetwater in Fort Wayne to record her first album. Her parents decided to get it packaged up, and, to West's surprise, people started buying it. Before she knew it, she was being asked to perform at different venues.

"People would ask for my fee and I'd say, 'Don't worry about it.' It was all just music and art," West said.

A few years ago it clicked that she could turn her passion into a profit and her hobby suddenly became her job. Now, at a time when a government study found employment for 16- to 19-year-olds is at the lowest level since World War II, West is beating the trends.

"It can be stressful, but totally worth it," she said. "I would encourage people to find something they like to do and figure out how to manage it [and] make it into an opportunity and not just a hobby. That's what I did."

West's dad, who's also her chauffeur while she learns to drive, said his daughter is getting more than money out of her self-made career.

"It's teaching her discipline, foresight, planning ahead and [that] she has to pay attention to the minute details of things. There's a lot of responsibility when someone books you," Rod West said. "I think it's really neat she gets to do something she's interested in, that she loves creating her own job."

West puts some of the money she makes back into making albums. She saves a lot too to help buy a car and pay for college. She wants to study music and photography.

"I have a really good local thing established so we'll see what comes of that and just go with it," West said.

West's first two albums are available on iTunes.