PHOTOS Meghan Trainor before the bass: See the breakout singer in high school

In the span of a few months, Meghan Trainor went from relative obscurity to having one of the catchiest songs of summer, All About That Bass. Although many of us are just now getting to know the 20-year-old singer, she’s been making the rounds in the music business for years.

Meghan began in the industry at the age of 11, thanks to her will and support from her musician dad, Gary Trainor.

“When I was 11, I came home from school and told my dad that I had an awesome voice and I needed to record it,” she told Nantucket Today in 2012. “At that point I started singing and writing all the time.”

Young Meghan Trainor with dad Gary Trainor.

Over the next few years, she gained experience in a band (Island Fusion), as a solo artist and as an award-winning songwriter. At 16, she gained some recognition for Take Care of Our Soldiers — leading a local radio personality to deem her “one to watch.”

“The voice and the wisdom and the lyrics and the songs… She’s just got that magical combination,” The Cheap Seat’s Cat Wilson told Cape Cod Times in 2010. “She absolutely sees the entire world in song, and it’s a rare artist who can do that.”

Still, Meghan’s undeniable breakout hit came this year with All About That Bass, which peaked as the No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In it, she sings about body confidence — which she’s admitted to struggling with over the years, particularly in high school.

“I was always a little insecure,” she told Billboard this month. “Girls need to be treated better. I never got that growing up.”

In the same interview, Meghan said she “didn’t date awesome dudes” in high school. However, it doesn’t sound like those years were entirely unenjoyable…

“I had an older brother who was popular, so I went in that group — he and I are only a year apart, so we’re very close. When we moved, and started at a new school, he made friends immediately so then I was like, ‘Hey! I’m his sister!’ And then I became ‘the singer girl,'” she told Pop Justice in August. “They hung out with me more they realized that I was pretty cool.”

After graduation, Meghan pursued music full-time, which quickly led to a contract with Big Yellow Dog in Nashville. She signed with EPIC Records in January of this year and is working on her first album.