Twins Lucy and Stephanie Ludlow, 18, began performing in early high school, but their passion started well before then.
“We started learning guitar in primary school when we were eight years old, but it really got started in Year 7 when we decided to enter into the Wanganui's Got Talent show,” Stephanie said.
“We performed a song, and we won, and they made us play at assembly and that's where it sort of took off.”
Lucy said that their stand-out performance was the very beginning.
“Our first performance in Year 7 (is a highlight) just because we sang the song Don't Give Up On Me, which is from the movie Five Feet Apart, which is about two teenagers with cystic fibrosis,” she said.
The twins are both diagnosed with the condition and have used singing and vocal exercise as a way to help their mind and body.
“Cystic fibrosis is a genetic condition that mainly affects the lungs and other organs, but mainly the lungs,” Stephanie said.
“Singing has helped us in some way because it helps with lung capacity and making those muscles stronger.”
Lucy said that vocals are also a way to clear their heads.
“It’s unlike exercise because you're not totally exhausted after singing, but you still use your lungs and not only that, it's like a nice way to take your mind off the struggles of living with a chronic health condition,” Lucy said.
Now that they’ve graduated from high school, they have cast their eyes to the big smoke.
“We are hoping to study a Bachelor of Music performance at Box Hill, it's a three-year course, and we’re looking forward to it,” Stephanie said.
Although the pair are attending university together, they are also excited to sing solo.
“We'd like to continue performing together, but also moving down to Melbourne, we’ll get to extend ourselves musically and meet new people,” Lucy said.
Outside of the performing arts, the pair have other creative hobbies that keep them busy.
“I quite like art, I really like to paint and draw but also arts and crafts, but I've always loved singing though,” Lucy said.
Stephanie also keeps her hobbies physical and engaging, but it always ties back to music.
“I like to be hands-on sometimes, I like doing woodwork,” Stephanie said.
“I built my own pedal board for my guitar.”
Moving to Box Hill will be a new adventure for the pair, but they stay hopeful.
“It's definitely going to be a big step, but I think it'll be good,” Stephanie said.
“It will be challenging, especially with managing our health conditions without our awesome parents helping out all the time, but I guess it's a good thing, being twins, that we’ll have each other,” Lucy said.
When ATAR results dropped in the early morning of Thursday, December 12, it felt like fate.
“I got an 89.3, and she got 89.4, and she’s one minute older,” Lucy said.
But what does the future hold for the twins?
For Stephanie, it looks like exploration.
“My plan is to go down there and see what opportunities come up in the music industry,” she said.
“I'd like to go professional, but also I'd love to be a music teacher one day because all the most inspirational people in my life are music teachers,” she said.
Lucy’s looks similar as she also knows where she wants to end up.
“I would like to see what else there is out there in the music industry, but I think I'd like to also eventually go down the path of teaching,” Lucy said.
“I've always imagined myself being a music teacher or an art teacher.”
You can take the girls out of Shepparton, but you can never take the Shepparton out of the girls.
But maybe, you can’t take the girls out of Shepparton forever.
“I would like to see what life is like in a metro area, but I could definitely see myself coming back living in regional Victoria, whether that's in Shepparton or somewhere else,” Lucy said.
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