It’s easier to be brave when you’ve got nothing to lose...

Amy Macdonald was only 15 when she started singing in coffee shops around Glasgow. She got her big break after sending a demo tape off in response to an ad in NME and by the age of 20 her debut album had sold three million copies, and reached No. 1 in the UK.

She has spent the last decade performing to sell-out crowds and has played alongside rock royalty – Paul Weller recorded guitar and piano parts on her second album and Bruce Springsteen is a fan. So, with so much success and validation behind her, why is she now starting to doubt herself?

In this week’s big interview (pages 6&7) Amy reveals at the age of 33 she has started to develop anxiety. She tells us: “You reach a point when everything changes and you start to have these worries and anxieties over things you never used to think about before.”

I think most of us can relate to this sense of losing your bravery as the years go by. I sometimes look back and marvel at the audacity of my younger self. I was happy to throw myself in at the deep-end, sometimes literally, like the time I entered into a school swimming gala when I couldn’t swim.

I landed my first proper job on a national newspaper when I was barely out of journalism college. It was a terrifyingly steep learning curve. I still cringe at the memory of pitching a story about National Tie Week to a room full of bemused male editors, twice my age. The truth was I had no idea what I was doing but I managed to learn on the job and the rest, as they say, is history.

The point is, it’s a lot easier to make your mistakes when you are young enough to start over if you mess up.

Despite her fears, Amy’s new album is receiving rave reviews and her star continues to rise. And I’m sure her 15-year-old self would be suitably impressed.