Singer Willa Ford, 20, may be releasing her debut album in July, but chances are, you've heard her name before. She used to date Backstreet Boy Nick Carter -- which earned her more enemies than fans. But now, she's ready to stand on her own. Not only does she have a killer CD coming out, but she's also the spokesperson for Pantene's Pro-Voice competition, which encourages young women to express themselves.

seventeen.com: How did you get started?

Willa: "When I was five, my mom played piano and I sat there with her, singing. And when I was about 11, my grandmother cut out this article for auditions for a girl group."

seventeen.com: Tell us about that girl group.

Willa: "It was called Entertainment Review. It was about 21 girls at any given time. They were between the ages of 5 to 18. We would perform -- singing and dancing. When I first was in the group, we were doing retirement homes and fairgrounds. We worked our way up. By the end, we were doing full summers at Busch Gardens and being paid. Some of the girls from PYT were in it with me."

seventeen.com: Your first single, "Bad," just came out. Do you write your own songs?

Willa: "I wrote most of the album. I probably wrote over a hundred songs, but obviously, you can only have 12 songs on the record. We finally decided on the name of the album. We dallied around with Willa's World for a minute, but I came up with Willa Was Here."

seventeen.com: What's your inspiration when you're writing music?

Willa: "It's whatever I'm going through at the time, or maybe a hardship I've gone through. Sometimes it's relationship stuff. Sometimes it's friendship stuff. Sometimes it's something that happened to one of my friends. I just write about everything I see."

seventeen.com: Speaking of relationships, you used to have a pretty famous one -- with Backstreet Boy Nick Carter. And the fans were really harsh -- showing up with "Die Willa" signs and everything.

Willa: "It was weird. It was hard. You don't choose who you fall in love with. I especially didn't get to choose. For people to ridicule you for that, and for people to make you into a monster for being in love with somebody is very, very hard on the soul. It really is.

I experienced, I think, true love at a very young age, which is an amazing thing. I still would, even if we're not together, I would still turn around and die for that man. It's that kind of a love situation where you know that person, if you're on your deathbed, that person is going to be there. What the fans say really doesn't matter to me. It's more about what that other person says and what that other person feels, not about what they think. As the fans get older and grow up, I think they kind of realize it. They kind of find other things to do with their time, other than try to make up stories and ridicule you for just being you. When people hate you for being you it's like, 'What did I do to you?'"

seventeen.com: Has that influenced your decisions on who you date now?

Willa: "You know what? I'll tell you what it has influenced. It's influenced how quiet I am about it. I'm beyond quiet about who I'm dating at the time, whether they're famous or not famous. I'm really, really quiet about it.... I'm not really into settling down with anybody right now again. Coming out of a serious relationship, I think you like to do your own thing for awhile -- kind of what I'm doing now."

seventeen.com: Like serving as the spokesperson for Pantene Pro-Voice. Tell us about the concert.

Willa: "It's going to be amazing. It really is. It's all about women expressing themselves through this music. I've had more calls from fans on that. I can only give some advice, but I can't really tell them what to do. The central part of the performance is going to be bananas. It's going to be crazy. Five finalists, me, and I think Jewel now. We'd love to draw in a huge crowd for these girls because they're going to deserve it."

seventeen.com: What are you doing in your spare time? Do you have any time to relax and chill out?

Willa: "I sleep. Most of the time, if I do get spare time, I'm working on music. If I'm not working on music, I'm working on ideas. I'm so involved, and I want to be such a part of what's going on in my life. I don't want anybody else calling the shots but me. I'm really working my butt off here."

All that hard work's really paying off -- be sure to check out Willa Was Here, which hits record stores in July.