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In the end, we came up short in the eyes of the judges but I couldn’t have been more proud of my team. There was so much love and support from not only my family and friends, but all the Dancing with the Stars squad, starting with my mentor Brandon Armstrong. He really had his hands full with us but I’m pretty sure he loved almost every minute! Brandon, just because we haven’t found you a girlfriend yet doesn’t mean we have stopped trying. The interviews will still go on! LOL

Shout out to the DWTS family who showed me so much love during the season. There are so many wonderful people there, from security, hair and makeup and costume to producers, grips, camera men and women and sound technicians. There are just a whole bunch of wonderful people at DWTS but without question my rock 24/7 is my partner Artyon “Partyon” Celestine. From day 1 you made me feel special and supported. I spent more time with Arty than my own family and now he is part of my family. I will never forget all the hours of laughter, game nights, movies, dinners, shopping and just plain rehearsal time. I’m just so honored to have been your first partner in season 1 of juniors and if you ever need a dance partner, well you have my number. Love you Arty!

Well what to do after such an intense experience? Well you go to Disneyland of course! You see by the time the finals were done, it was my 11th birthday so I got some of the squad and had a great birthday dinner at my friend Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurant PUMP! My friends at Deja Vu cakes even made me the most delicious cake with a DWTS: Juniors theme that included my 1940s look from the show! It’s all been so incredible and I just wanted to say thank you to all the fans and friends who supported #TeamBrandon. Especially thank you to my family at Disney Channel who made all this possible. I hope I made you all proud.

Artyon and I just really stayed focused on the prize and doubled down our work to get all the dances down. The rehearsal room without all the other teams has this weirdness to it. The halls are less full, the rooms are quieter and the pressure is definitely there. The desks were really giving us a hard time during our rehearsal and camera blocking for our High School Musical Foxtrot. Right up to the last minute I wasn’t sure how much trouble those props were going to give us! The way we were using them in rehearsals just didn’t work or look good in the final camera blocking so last minute changes had to be made. Arty and I just looked at each other, shrugged it off and concentrated on us but it was definitely in the back of our minds.

On show night the atmosphere was electric and it was so awesome to see so many of the previous teams in the audience and backstage. We’re all very close after so many weeks together and when one of us gets eliminated it’s really tough. It’s so comforting to see each other before show time and get little pep talks of encouragement. I remember Kenzie coming up to me in the makeup room before the show and telling me “You got this!” I can’t believe we are all in the finals together. It’s been an incredible journey and something I will never forget no matter the outcome. We all have pushed ourselves so much to be here in the finals of season 1 of Dancing with the Stars: Juniors.

The quickstep was the hardest dance by far for me to learn. First off you have to move your feet so fast and keep in perfect sync with your partner so Artyon and I spent a lot of time just learning the steps slowly. Once we felt we had a piece of it we would try it in real time but oh boy were we all over the place at first! Brandon was very tough but that’s what makes us a great team, we push ourselves. To make it that much more difficult, I knew I would be wearing a long heavy gown so I had to work through that and make sure I didn’t get tripped up in it. So during rehearsals I would practice with a long light skirt just to get a feel. With only five teams left, the pressure was something really noticeable because everyone at this point is just so darn good and more is expected from the judges. The form and performance had to be on point and, don’t forget, we also have to learn and perform opening numbers as well so Arty and I would never miss a single minute of rehearsal time. Less applesauce breaks more rehearsal time. “Let’s go!” Brandon would yell, lol.

Although we didn’t get a “10” this week, shout out to Miles who was long overdue for a “10”. He’s such an amazing dancer. We were satisfied with trip 9’s again for the second week in a row and made it to the semi-finals!

Rehearsals were crazy because a tricky part to any salsa is getting close to your partner and moving together. It’s a very close contact dance which is funny at first. It took some getting use to. LOL Brandon had some tough moves for us, especially for poor Arty who had to fully extend lift me and spin three times at the end of the dance when where both totally spent. Shout of to Artyon for pulling it off perfectly!

The night was filled with so many wonderful surprises like Mandla’s Dad Stevie Wonder coming on stage to sing “Isn’t She Lovely” while he danced the foxtrot with his awesome partner Brightyn Brems. I mean, c’mon, that’s pretty awesome! Backstage was also really chaotic, like crazier than usual, because even though there are only 6 contestants left, everyone had lots of friends and family in the audience. The atmosphere was electric! I really had a lot of fun introducing my grandparents to everyone, showing them around the backstage and ballroom. Everyone dressed up so nice. I was so proud to have them there and it was a really a big deal! To say this dance was extra special for some extra special people in my life would be an understatement.

We didn’t have much time to learn the song and the choreography. I think I learned the whole number in like 2 hours and Artyon and I just spent the rest of the time getting our moves sharp and popping, which wasn’t easy to do because our timing had to be perfect. Brandon knew how disappointed we were and how important it was for our team to really come out and give the crowd and the judges something they had never seen before but I wasn’t expecting Val to take off his Rolex and hand it over to me! LOL

It was a such a fun night. Not only the song and costumes but also having our families there wearing black and gold to match our outfits. We came in as one big, happy, and fun family it was really awesome. Afterwards Jordan Fisher was so ecstatic and proud of how we rebounded and Adam even said “That’s what makes a champion!”

The Paso Doble dance has the movements of a bullfight. The man is supposed to be the bullfighter and the woman is the cape. The costume department did such a good job making a cape skirt with my Mal outfit! It’s an intense dance and that is exactly what Artyon and I performed.

The judges were really tough on us Sunday night though! The audience was not happy with what they were saying and gave the judges the first big BOO’s of the season. I can’t lie. I was shook! I felt really disappointed because I put so much love and hard work into this performance.

I really wanted to make my Disney Channel family proud because my “Stuck in the Middle” castmates and friend Kenny Ortega came out that night. He directed and choreographed Hocus Pocus, the High School Musicals, all the Descendants movies and Newsies! Thank you Disney Channel family for always supporting me and my dreams.

Last year, I hosted the premiere of Descendants2 and got to spend a lot of time with that wonderful cast, especially my friend Dove Cameron. I’m such a big fan of the Descendants and I really wanted to pay respect to Dove’s character “Mal”, the cast and Kenny so the judges’ comments did sting but afterwards I was really motivated to come out super strong and aggressive for next week’s “Juniors Choice.”

I hope I can inspire other people to go out there and try something new. There will always be someone out there telling you that you can’t do something or that you are not good enough. Don’t listen!

I always feel a little mixed after a show because you’re super excited to see what’s next and get going but also there’s a team missing because of elimination which is really tough. No one wants to go home so when one team leaves, we all feel it. I think you can see that when eliminations happen, we all run to that team and share hugs and tears. We may be in a competition but “Ohana First.”

So rehearsals are intense that first day and the Samba is one of the hardest Latin dances but Brandon always comes with great choreography and fun ideas! The whole studio had great energy and everyone was so excited for Disney Week. We were all running around telling each other which characters we were going to be. It was awesome! This was the chance that all little girls dream of. To be a Disney princess, to represent, step up and be magical!

The Magic Kingdom is known to be the happiest place on earth but last night was a close second. 😊