FOUR-year-old Kaitlyn Maher – who has taken “America’s Got Talent” by storm – has dreams bigger than winning a TV talent show.
“I want to be a princess,” she says when asked what she’d like to be when she grows up.
For now, the pony-tailed preschooler will have to settle for being in the Top 10 on “Talent” and the hit series’ best-known contender.
“We just want her to have fun doing this,” her father Reuben, an IT manager, says.
So far, Kaitlyn seems to be doing just that.
Kaitlyn – who won’t be old enough to join the children’s choir at her church in Ashburn, Va. until next year – began singing at age 1.
Some worry she won’t be able to handle the disappointment of losing. Others think that it would make the show into a pure cuteness contest if she beat adult performers.
Reuben and his and wife Alison, a diplomatic employee with the State Department, insist Kaitlyn is a well-adjusted girl who loves Bible stories, American Girl books, and playing with her baby brother Ethan.
“She kind of drives herself,” he says.
“We actually tried practicing as little as possible during the show so she can really enjoy the experience and it doesn’t become like work.”
Reuben says his daughter is “totally prepared” to be eliminated from the competition.
“What a lot of people don’t know is that she actually thought she had lost at one point” several weeks back, her father says.
“She came backstage and said ‘Mommy and Daddy, I lost’ and she handled it like a champ.”