First Person: My ‘American Idol’ Experience, by Sarah Sellers

The 15th and final bittersweet season of American Idol is underway, and all season long, Yahoo Music’s Reality Rocks is inviting alumni from the series to share their stories. Tonight, the series will air its very last auditions ever, so we’re running an essay by repeat auditioner Sarah Sellers. Sarah didn’t make it onto the air until Season 10 (when then-judge Steven Tyler famously complimented her large, Tyler-esque lips), but her Idol journey extended over the course of nine years and five different auditions. Here, she tells her tale of perseverance.