On the drive to school most mornings, Reagan Tate and her mom have Lithium radio on. It works fine until Hole comes on.

"My mom changes the radio," the Vandalia freshman said. "'I can't stand her voice.' I'm like, it's wonderful. What are you talking about?"

Her mom likes country pop — Chris Stapleton, that world. Her dad is the one who got Reagan into rock and metal. What started as exposure turned into something deeper. Reagan picked up a guitar, taught herself to play — left-handed — starting on acoustic before moving to electric about a year later.

"Smoke on the Water" was her first rock song. She didn't know it was based on a real fire in Switzerland until someone told her during the interview.

She's largely self-taught on guitar and on piano, though two years of clarinet in junior high band gave her a foundation in reading sheet music and understanding time signatures. Now she's learning Nirvana songs, Tool, Alice in Chains, Pantera riffs on her electric.

She has an unusual collection for a fourteen-year-old. Her mom's boyfriend's uncle developed arthritis and couldn't play anymore, so he gave Reagan everything — an '80s Fender electric, two acoustics, a big Fender amp, and a pile of gear. The vintage electric sounded incredible the one time she got to play it. Then it started shocking her.

"I'm really sad about that," she said, "because it also sounded really good."

She still has another electric. She's working with what she's got.

Reagan has been drawing since she was a little kid — always people, always faces. Pencil, colored pencil, alcohol markers for the saturation. She works from photographic references, mostly portraits of musicians she admires, and she works fast. People ask her how.

"I don't know," she said. "I just kind of do it."

Her mother doesn't know where it comes from. "I'm not an artist," her mom told her. "Your dad doesn't really draw." Reagan spent a lot of time alone as a kid, figuring things out. The art emerged from that.

Recently, she made a poster for her bedroom wall — two skeletons standing side by side, holding hands. She called it "kind of a romantic piece." It was inspired by Alex Grey, the artist behind Tool's album covers, and it took about five hours. That's long for Reagan. Most pieces take an hour or two.

The music she listens to runs through everything. Kurt Cobain is her biggest inspiration — not just for the sound but for how he lived. "I really like what lines he goes by in life," she said. She connects to his songs about love and about sadness in relationships. She admires Chester Bennington for the way he commits physically to a vocal: "He puts his heart into how he sings it. He screams those verses." She loves how the guitar and the voice interact — not as separate elements but as one thing.

She's also writing her own songs. She has a notebook. She plays them for herself on guitar and works on lyrics.

"I want to make my own for people to listen to and be like, ‘This is great, I relate to this,’" she said.

Music, for Reagan, isn't background. It's how she processes what she's feeling.

"When I'm upset, when I feel down, I listen to music to cope," she said. "Especially heavier music. It kind of feels like it's taking the anger out for me."

And there's something else: recognition. "When you see what some songs are about, you can realize that you're not alone in a hard situation," she said.

That might be the most important thing she said all day — a fifteen-year-old who has already figured out that art exists, in part, so people know they aren't the only ones carrying what they're carrying.

As for the future, she's torn. Part of her imagines medical school. Part of her imagines music. She knows she doesn't have to choose yet.

On the day of the interview, it was Adam Sandler Day at school. Reagan showed up in her usual outfit and realized it already qualified.

"I kind of dress like Adam Sandler myself," she said, "so I'm just kind of dressing up like myself."

She said it deadpan. And then moved on to talk about guitar tone.