At the age of 15, Brooklyn Sauer has already learnt to say yes to opportunities. She’s auditioning for The Voice two years after being bitten on the torso by a shark.
The attack happened when Brooklyn and her friend were swimming near her home town of Bundaberg in Queensland. Brooklyn says when the shark grabbed her and pulled her under, then let her go, she couldn’t believe it was happening.
But her surf lifesaving training soon kicked in.
“I kind of just went into, ‘This is what you need to do,’” she tells TV WEEK.
“I swam back about halfway and then I got picked up by a surfer. I also walked up the beach by myself. Adrenaline’s a crazy thing.”
Brooklyn was flown to Brisbane, where she was found to have around 40 puncture wounds, needing 230 stitches.
“The stitches absolutely sucked,” she remembers. “For months, I could barely sleep on my right side. I had a limp for a long time. And even now, I still get scar tissue pain.
“But it’s okay. When I think about being in pain, I just think, ‘I’m lucky to be alive.’”
Brooklyn returned to the same beach six weeks later, after all her stitches were dissolved – “I actually pulled a lot of them out because I was really keen to get back in the water,” she admits – and also went back to competing in surf lifesaving.
“The first long swim I did after my shark attack, I had a panic attack. But I did finish it, in the timeframe as well.”
Having been singing for as long as she can remember and writing songs since primary school, Brooklyn was scouted via social media to audition in front of coaches Richard Marx, Melanie C, Kate Miller-Heidke and Ronan Keating, plus secret coach Tones And I, for The Voice.
“I just went with it,” she says.
Brooklyn says she’s “a lot more outgoing” than she was before the shark attack, and doesn’t let fear or embarrassment stop her from doing things.
“I just do it, because tomorrow’s not promised.”
Catch The Voice on Monday and Tuesday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 7pm on Channel Seven or 7plus.
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