Garland always claimed that her talent as a performer was inherited, saying: "Nobody ever taught me what to do onstage." Critics agree that, even when she debuted as a child, Garland had always sounded mature for her age, particularly on her earlier recordings. From an early age, Garland had been billed as "the little girl with the leather lungs", a designation the singer later admitted to having felt humiliated by because she would have much preferred to have been known to audiences as a "pretty" or "nice little girl". Jessel recalled that, even at only 12 years old, Garland's singing voice resembled that of "a woman with a heart that had been hurt". "The Kansas City Star" contributor Robert Trussel cited Garland's singing voice among the reasons why her role in "The Wizard of Oz" remains memorable, writing that although "She might have been made up and costumed to look like a little girl ... she didn't sing like one" due to her "powerful contralto commandattention". Camille Paglia, writing for "The New York Times", joked that even in Garland's adult life, "her petite frame literally throbbed with her huge voice", making it appear as though she were "at war with her own body". Theater actress and director Donna Thomason stated that Garland was an "effective" performer because she was capable of using her "singing voice [as a natural extension of speaking voice", a skill that Thomason believes all musical theater actors should at least strive to achieve. Trussel agreed that "Garland's singing voice sounded utterly natural. It never seemed forced or overly trained."