Rising Above Haters, Unsupportive Teachers And General Neg Vibes

Jessica Cerro rushes into the teeming Surry Hills cafe and plonks herself down on a chair, waving coffee and introductory platitudes and getting straight down to business with an affable grin. A pair of girls huddled over their cups at another table glance not-so-covertly at our nook — Cerro's impeccably slick makeup and cropped locks are easily recognisable, and it's hard to miss her booming voice, which is competing with the speakers. So it's not surprising that someone of her skyrocketing status may draw curious looks in a cosy Sydney cafe. But Cerro is either totally oblivious or completely lacks an ego — the latter becoming evident as more of the young woman behind Montaigne is revealed.

At 20, Cerro employs a jaw-dropping vocabulary that would put most university lecturers to shame. Like, how often do you come across someone capable of wrapping their tongue around words like 'litigious' and 'equanimous' over a coffee table with the casualness usually afforded to throwing around colloquialisms? But she and her parents based her Ivy League scholarship application around sport, not smarts. "I'm like, 'I'm not going to get an academic scholarship because I'm not that smart'. I'm smart, but not that smart. There are definitely smarter 20-year-olds I'm sure. I know them! Like, those scholarships are designated for geniuses. I merely have, like, above average intelligence accompanied with the ability to play football quite well. I can do that, let's do that," she jokes. 

So football it was, until her mother came up with the idea to add 'musical prowess' to her expansive repertoire: "My mum was like 'why don't you record a song that you cover properly so we can put it over your highlights reel to show that you have multiple talents?'" she laughs at herself. "I'd been writing since I was young, I'd just never shown my parents, ever, because it was embarrassing and personal… They didn't realise that I actually had chops, and when they did my mum started saying 'let's take you to studios and use producers'. Not for any other reason other than [she] wanted more music. She put it all over the internet, like, she shoved it on YouTube and Unearthed High. She did all of it," Cerro smiles. And no, it's not as Dance Moms as it sounds; Cerro was just as enthusiastic. "My parents fostered in me a healthy sense of ambitiousness and of adventurousness I suppose, so my Mum sometimes got a little too pushy but I think that was good for me in retrospect. My dad's always been quite level-headed about it."

Ambition is a wonderful thing. Heck, everyone's always complaining that Gen 'Y-Bother' needs to get off our asses and do something with our lives other than watch Netflix and shop for sexual partners on Tinder. But in a high school setting, especially a private girls school, tall poppy syndrome runs rife. Interestingly, it wasn't Cerro's peers who didn't support her musical success it was her teachers. "I feel like you shouldn't be discouraging your students to do what they love, you know? Like, they never discouraged it, but they never encouraged ambition with it," she says carefully. "Even with the Unearthed thing, my school was never into it. They never made a big deal out of it at all, they didn't care and I just went through that all by myself… Like, the music department I feel almost resented me a little bit too, because I didn't choose music as an HSC elective." It turns out that her school "required private tuition for something… we couldn't afford to pay for that!" she frowns. "And also, I can sing, I don't need to be taught… I could sing perfectly well, and I know they would have 'classicalafied' me… I tried to perform at assembly and stuff, but they privileged the girls who were doing music and stuff. It's like, ah ha ha, look what I'm doing now! They still don't understand, they still don't get it."

What's amazing about the way Cerro holds herself is her ability to discuss her abilities and accolades without a single suggestion of entitlement or self-importance. Actually, it's quite the opposite. It may be because she's incredibly careful in her phrasing — she's quick to throw out self-depreciating jokes and takes time to explain every opinion. But confidence and ambition is still widely viewed as threatening, especially when associated with women. Princess Diana said it best during her BBC1 Panorama interview in 1995 — "I think every strong woman in history has had to walk down a similar path, and I think it's the strength that causes the confusion and the fear. Why is she strong? Where does she get it from? Where is she taking it? Where is she going to use it?" Cerro offers her own rules for walking the fine line between ego and self-assuredness: "One, treat people like equals, and two, [make sure] they treat me like an equal. Like, if someone starts to be a little too ingratiating or too 'I don't wanna hurt your precious feelings', I'm like 'dude, fucking jump all over me I don't care'."

But there's one hater in particular who has taken it upon himself to spread negative vibes all over her social media. "I have this one guy who has me on Snapchat, follows me on Instagram and on Facebook and all the socials, and every time I come out with a song he Snapchats me being like 'give up Montaigne, you're shit'. Just a random fan. A punter," she rephrases with a laugh. "But he will Snapchat me things from his life - like, he'll say jokes and then Snapchat them directly to me."

Cerro has been calm until now, but she becomes increasingly frustrated at the situation as she considers it. "Like, what kind of sad person are you?... If you don't like someone's music and you are a healthy balanced person, you DO NOT comment negative things on YouTube and Facebook saying that you don't like their music. You don't go out of you're way to inconvenience them. You just say nothing and go on with your life." Hear hear girl, that dude just needs a hug. "Oh totally, and he doesn't know that either, he doesn't know he needs a hug. He thinks he's fine, he thinks this is normal behaviour.

"[Haters] do not affect me. I am comfortable enough in my life and myself to see that and be like 'I feel sorry for that person'. Like, this isn't my problem; they're just projecting. That person needs some serious work on themselves… There are plenty of people like that out in the world, I'm no stranger to it, and I feel sorry for them."

"I'm coming across as very equanimous about it because I generally am. Sometimes I do get fired up about these things though, but it's a momentary thing. It comes in and I'm like 'why, this is annoying, why?' but I take a step back and get some perspective on it — this is just me not being palatable to every single person in the world, which is totally reasonable!"