`` American Idol'' has dubbed her the `` all-American girl,'' she's sailed through round after round of competition without a hitch, and even celebrity judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell -- who get paid to be unimpressed -- are now singing her praises.

But there may be more to Ayla Brown than the picture-perfect image `` Idol'' has painted of the 17-year-old Wrentham native, now one of the national competition's coveted Top 24.

`` I would say it's a complete misconception of myself,'' Brown said during a telephone interview from Los Angeles. `` What people don't know is what's underneath the surface, how (my parents) have four jobs to send my sister and me to private school.''

Brown said she has obstacles and obligations -- including cleaning her room, holding down a job and being a good sister -- like everyone else, and hopes that when she takes the `` Idol'' stage, the focus will be on her singing, not her background, misconstrued or otherwise.

`` I hope America will like my voice and realize that this is a singing competition, this isn't about my background,'' she said. `` I'm just here as a contestant, giving it my all, trying not to fall.''

Brown hasn't done much falling thus far, having cruised through two preliminary tryouts, getting the thumbs up at a Boston audition in front of Jackson, Abdul and Cowell, and making it through the show's fierce Hollywood Round that saw the pack whittled from 175 hopefuls hand-picked from across the country to the Top 24.

Then again, Brown knows a little something about competition.

As the captain of her basketball team at Noble & Greenough School in Dedham, she has scored more than 2,200 points in her career, and is headed to Boston College next fall on a full basketball scholarship.

But now basketball will have to take a back seat to being a full-time `` Idol'' contestant.

Brown said she played her final high school basketball game last Friday, and finished all of her graduation requirements early so she can stay on the West Coast for the remainder of her stint in the competition.

Now, instead of doing homework and hanging out with her friends, she's rubbing elbows with celebrities and becoming a major attraction on arguably the biggest show on the planet, which has such strict confidentiality rules that even her grandmother didn't know she'd made it to the Top 24 before Wednesday night's episode.

But Brown said family support, especially from her parents, state Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, and WCVB-TV newscaster Gail Huff, has kept her grounded and focused.

Stay tuned to the Fox Network on Wednesday, when Brown will perform for the first time in a two-hour show with the Top 12 females.

The show starts at 8 p.m. The outcome won't be disclosed until a live results show at 8.p. Thursday, but Brown already sounds grateful.

`` It's been an experience of a lifetime,'' she said. `` It is so remarkable to think that I was just one of 12,000 people trying out at Gillette, and now one of 24 to be voted for in the country.

`` It's a great feeling, and just something I can look back on, and no matter what happens, say I had the chance to be the next American Idol.''

LAUREN CARTER can be reached at 508-236-0339 or at lcarter@thesunchronicle.com.