Tessa Souter

A runaway at 16, and a single parent by 18, Tessa moved to San Francisco where she supported herself as a struggling writer in a new country by cleaning houses for two years. Driven by the need to communicate, she joined the Writer's Grotto in San Francisco and then became a successful journalist, working as a sub-editor at Elle and subsequently writing for the world's top publications. Part of her personal story has been featured in British Vogue. She moved to New York in 1996 and began her third successful career with a scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music. Jazz legend Mark Murphy said of her: 'She's my next star.