Fifteen-year-old Kaylee Monahan recently stepped up and shared her gift of singing, despite facial and speech challenges.

The Catasauqua High School student was chosen to perform in the 2022 myFace Celebrates Gala, held May 2 in New York City. She sang a duet at the gala event, after being coached by a Broadway performer.

According to its website, “myFace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the face - and transforming the lives - of children and adults with facial differences.”

Kaylee was born with a cleft palate and had seven surgeries before the age of 7. Kaylee noted Dr. Walter Okunski performed the procedures.

According to Kaylee, she started speech therapy when she was only a few months old to help with feeding, then with language development. She is still taking speech lessons.

Kaylee has been working with Krista George-Martell in Catasauqua Area School District since kindergarten. They’ve been together for 11 years, and George-Martell had nothing but praise for Kaylee’s journey.

She noted Kaylee has a hyper-nasal vocal quality, which she has to monitor in her speech. None of this has stopped her from pursuing her passion for performance. She’s been involved in drama and chorus.

“Despite her speech impairment, she’s been an outgoing and friendly person,” George-Martell said.

George-Martell noted Kaylee is “spunky, sweet and kind” with a contagious smile and sweet heart.

“She’s been an absolute pleasure,” George-Martell added.

This diligence to her lessons and efforts to grow helped lead her to this moment.

Kaylee’s mother found out about the myFace gala on social media and asked Kaylee about it.

“Right away, I knew it was something I wanted to do,” Kaylee said. “That was my first time attending the myFace Celebrates Gala.”

“Join us as we share messages of hope, resilience and community through musical performances and storytelling to benefit the craniofacial community,” the myFace Celebrates Gala website reported.

Kaylee was partnered with another young lady named Ana Perez from New York. Ana is the same age as Kaylee and also has a cleft palate.

Their song was “For Good” from the Broadway musical “Wicked.” Kaylee and Ana met virtually with Allie Trim, Broadway singer and actor. Trim is currently performing as a standby for Glinda in “Wicked” on Broadway.

“Performing up on stage was an amazing experience and something that I will never forget,” Kaylee said. “Given the opportunity, I would consider doing it again.”

Kaylee noted one of the reasons she did the performance was to show others like her that they can do anything. Her message has always been “don’t let anyone bring you down.”

George-Martell noted she and Kaylee have been working on Kaylee’s self-advocacy skills. She is evolving her ability to speak up about her situation.

Kaylee’s advice is to never give up, even if other people treat you differently.

“Everyone is different in their own ways,” Kaylee said. “If you have dreams that some people don’t believe that you can do, do it.”