Chrysda Smith has been expressing herself through song for as long as she can remember.

Now the 15-year-old’s musical gifts are being channelled into a creation that she hopes will serve as an inspiration to her peers.

“I want to empower young women,” said Chrysda of her personal project for Somersfield Academy, soon to be completed and loaded online. Featuring her own original pieces as well as cover songs, the work gleans its title from the Sharon Flake novel The Skin I’m In.

That book delved into a young girl bullied over her skin colour. Chrysda, who was born with eczema, confronted a different battle.

“Looking back, I was able to use it in my music,” she said. “I incorporated a lot of things into it. My target audience is young teenage girls. They should know they are beautiful.”

Her school describes her as an all-rounder: Chrysda excels at athletics and academia as well as music, with maths and Spanish standing out as favourites.

She is a prefect and a consistent high honours student.

But her singing has won special acclaim this month with performances at both Clearwater and Whitney Institute middle schools, followed by the First Church of God.

School friends said her singing gave them “shivers”, and her pastor, the Bishop Vernon George Lambe Sr, “came on stage and blessed me to show how proud he is”, she said, to the joy of her parents, Chris Smith and Rhonda Woods-Smith.

“The pastor called my mother up in church and we both started crying. It’s not often that we show that with each other. My mother was saying, God has really blessed me with you, and my dad was there to support me.”

Chrysda has played violin at the Bermuda School of Music from the age of four, and when it comes to stage fright, she falls back on the Suzuki method, which emphasises playing in public to make performance feel natural.

“The only way to get better is by performing, so I have always done it,” she said. “Another way to calm your nerves is to practise as much as you can before performing. And I always say a prayer before going on. Why be nervous when you have an opportunity to open up to people?”

Chrysda has also shone on the sports fields in both netball and field hockey, as well as track and field and cross country: she has travelled to the United States for field hockey camps, and represented Bermuda on the under-19 field hockey team at Michigan State University in July 2015, as well as Philadelphia in July 2016. Additionally, she has been selected to tour with the Bermuda National Team.

Somersfield is “a small school where it is not that difficult to stand out”, she said.

“If you have a talent, showcase it. Select your talent and run with it. Explore yourself and expand your world. That will allow you to stand out.”

The Skin I’m In is expected to be online on YouTube and SoundCloud early next month, and can be found by searching under Chrysda’s name.