Spending the last six months on the road opening up for 'NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys helped Moore's addictive first single "Candy" turn gold-plated. As the song shot up the charts, Moore's debut album, "So Real," became such a hot property that her label, Epic/550 Music, decided to push up its release from early 2000 to December 7.

Not bad for the sprightly teen, who would have hailed from Nashua, New Hampshire had her family not relocated to the teen Hitsville of Orlando, Florida when she was barely two months old. In later years, Moore learned to develop the kind of entertainment moxie that would serve her well, persuading her parents to let her take voice lessons at the age of nine.

From there, it was a hop, skip, and a jump for Mandy to musical theater, and then up to commercial work, providing voice-overs and singing jingles for a variety of local businesses across the sunshine state. It was at one of those commercial sessions (held at Trans Continental Records Studios in Orlando) that Moore was discovered by a talent scout who signed her to a major label deal.

Despite her early successes, it's sometimes easy to forget that Moore is still only a teenager who has yet to even get her learner's permit, let alone a driver's license. Shortly before the release of "So Real," Mandy Moore chatted with MTV News' David Basham about the pros and cons of the teen pop world, life on the road with 'NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, and her long term music goals.