Ana Sofia is the youngest of four children, born 13 years after her closest and 19 years after her oldest sibling. She grew up as an American and Latina, the daughter of an Iowan father, Al, and a Guatemalan mother, Sandra, whose mother was Mexican, Ana Maria. Her home is in Virginia but she also spent much of her life in Guatemala. She lived at times as an only child but also with one or more of her three siblings for periods of time, observing their more mature experiences and challenges as their lives, careers, relationships, and families developed. She usually had two parents but it could feel as if she had five.

When her mother was pregnant with Ana Sofia, she was given the CD Cradle Classics at a baby shower and from birth this music was played every night to Ana Sofia as she fell to sleep. She always loved music, humming and then singing and performing alone and at family gatherings since she was a toddler. She would watch America’s Got Talent with her father every year and at age 9 saw Grace Vanderwaal playing the ukulele. This led to a conversation with her brother, Sebastian, who received a ukulele for Christmas years earlier but had not learned how to play it. They made a deal that when she could play him two songs, he would let her keep the ukulele. Soon she returned to him playing “Riptide” and “I Don’t Know My Name.”

The experience of playing an instrument while singing a song was a revelation that led to her next discovery. She realized that she could now make her own music rather than mimicking other performers and singing others’ songs. Soon she wrote her first song, “Let’s Go to the Moon.” It became a family and friends favorite. After hearing her perform, her elementary school music teacher decided to feature the song in the school’s annual Spring Concert for the school community. He bought enough green ukuleles for the whole school and had Ana Sofia teach her song to fellow students. The school performance was classic. Soon after, Ana Sofia asked to perform in front of others and, at 10, began to do Open Mics and talent shows at local venues and school, including often performing “Let’s Go to the Moon,” which audiences loved.

From then on Ana Sofia never stopped writing and performing her songs mixed in with her favorite covers. Generally, learning and experimenting with music was her primary interest, a reward during breaks or after completing her schoolwork or chores. Between 10 and 16 Ana Sofia wrote many songs and learned covers of her favorite songs while trying to apply her own style. She taught herself the guitar and started learning the piano. Her parents set up a music room just off the family room. Soon she had accumulated several different types of ukuleles, guitars, and, seeing her love of learning instruments and music, her parents bought a Baby Grand piano after extracting a promise from her (as her brother had earlier regarding the ukulele) that she would learn how to play it.

Ana Sofia’s typical routine would be to get home from school and go straight to the music room, close the doors, and usually learn and play cover songs but also from time-to-time write a new song. Her father would be watching TV in the family room when she came home and, unbeknownst to her, would mute the TV and continue to sit looking at the screen while listening to his daughter’s music. Often, when she learned or wrote something new, she would come out of the room and play it for him and then go study.

During the fall of 2023, Al noticed a change in her music and her creative energy and productivity. Instead of her coming out of the room playing covers and an occasional new original song, it was reversed. Regularly she came home, went into the music room for an hour or so, and then came out with an original new song, music and lyrics almost complete. Each song seemed better than the last. This began to happen almost weekly, which resulted in accumulating a portfolio of songs. He started feeling a responsibility to somehow capture this music, which was usually sketched out on her phone or random pieces of paper. Sometimes she would lose the paper or forget a song he liked, which seemed like a shame to him.

He contacted Ana Sofia’s cousin, Jose Rodriguez, who was a videographer that he knew had some experience in recording one of his own songs. Since they were all going to Guatemala for Christmas in a few weeks, they agreed to continue the conversation then, including possibly meeting a producer Jose knew in Guatemala. After arriving in Guatemala, Ana Sofia, Jose, and other cousins were sharing music at home when Jose remembered a music producer that he had worked with on a video shoot in Antigua Guatemala a few years earlier. This producer, Juan Pablo (JP) Berreondo, now lived in Los Angeles and had produced some songs for a Guatemalan singer, Gaby Moreno, which were included in an album then nominated for a 2024, Grammy: Best Latin Pop Album. Jose thought he could find JP’s contact information.

On January 11, 2024, Jose sent an email to Al and JP introducing them. JP and Al had a virtual meeting on January 16. After discussing the process of producing music, Ana Sofia came down from studying and met JP virtually. He asked her to play a song. She played “Sealed Letters.” JP was impressed enough to invite Ana Sofia and Al to come to his studio in Burbank, California to work on possibly producing some of her music.

On February 1, after school, Al and Ana Sofia flew to meet JP for the weekend in Burbank. She played twenty of the songs she had written on the guitar, ukulele and piano and they picked twelve to possibly produce. Then they flew back on a red-eye so Ana Sofia could go to school. Over the coming months, Ana Sofia and Al repeated this weekend routine and made several trips to Burbank and also had other virtual sessions to work with JP and some outstanding musicians to finish these songs. Ten of these first twelve songs became the basis, along with three other songs she would write before turning seventeen, and another she wrote at 17, for what would become Sealed Letters the album.