K-Pop singer-songwriter and BAFTA winner visit Burgess Hill Girls for Anti-Bullying Week

The two joined forces to write a young adult ‘booksical’ titled The Songs You’ve Never Heard, which champions sisterhood, musical talent, and body positivity.

The story also looks at themes like finding your voice, navigating social media, female friendship and love.

Ellie told students that collaboration is important for women working in a male-dominated industry.

She said: “Perfectionism is the creative career’s greatest enemy. We need to find inspiration and work up multiple different ideas all the time, from music for a children’s TV show to a Dutch pop star’s next hit, delivering new outcomes for a client to choose from. Some of them will be brilliant and some of them less so but they will all be stepping stones along the way to the final idea.”

The current Lower Sixth at Burgess Hill Girls were the first readers of the first draft of the book in March 2019, giving the writers feedback to help them shape the novel. At the recent event Year 9 students read a key moment from the book where the character Meg rescues her friend Alana from a ‘doom spiral’ after she reads negative comments online.

Becky said: “We wanted to show how female friendship, solidarity and celebrating each other’s successes is so important. One woman’s win does not mean another’s loss.”

The Songs You’ve Never Heard is on Waterstones.com for £8.99. People can also listen to the soundtrack on YouTube.