There’s nothing new about communicating via video for teens today. There’s Skype and Facetime and all kinds of other video chat programs.

But to look at a screen and find yourself talking to the pope?

That’s a little different.

But that was the scenario that faced two seniors at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Aug. 31.

Alexandra Vazquez, 17, and Valerie Herrera, 17, were selected from among the students at the school to speak directly to Pope Francis during a video town hall meeting that aired on ABC’s 20/20 on Sept. 4. The meeting, which was taped days prior, also included audiences in Los Angeles and McAllen, Texas.

Herrera, in particular, captivated the audience, sharing her story of being teased and left out because of the vitiligo that caused light patches to appear on her face starting at around age 4. Looking different made her vulnerable to bullying, she told Pope Francis.

In an interview with the Catholic New World, she said, the slights weren’t always overt. “They would call me names. I didn’t have a lot of friends. I would sit with the other kids at school,” she said. “But outside of school, I didn’t have anyone to play with.”

She found an outlet, and a way to connect, with music, singing in her church choir at Our Lady of Charity Parish in Cicero since she was a child. She learned to play the violin and the guitar, and joined her middle school choir. After she explained that to Pope Francis, he asked her to sing.

That was a surprise; in preparing for the appearance, she had shared her story and been told she would not be asked to sing. When the pope did ask, she had to come up with a song. She chose the Spanish hymn “Junto a ti, Maria,” something she learned for the church choir. She also was nervous, but not so much because the pope was listening or because of the television audience that would be watching later. She was nervous because she knew the audiences in California and Texas would also be watching and listening.

“I’m not that afraid to sing at school, because I sing at school Masses,” Herrera said. “But I was like, oh my gosh, there’s all these people.”

Both girls knew about an hour ahead of time that they would be speaking to the pope, and that there had been a change from the original plan of having a panel of students address the pontiff. Herrera, who spoke first, had a chance to ask the question she had prepared and that had been approved. She asked what he expected of youth. He told her: “What I hope for from youth is for you not to walk alone in life, that you feel encouraged to walk with the love and the tenderness of others. Life is very difficult. It’s very difficult to walk alone. You get lost, you get confused, you can find the wrong path. Or you can be walking around in circles in a maze. Or the worst: You can stop because you get tired of walking in life. Always walk hand in hand with someone who loves you, someone who gives you tenderness.”

Reflecting on his answer afterwards, Herrera said that the pope’s words answered her question, but really are applicable to anyone. “But in that moment, I felt like he was talking to me,” Herrera said.

Vazquez spoke to Pope Francis about missing her father, who died when she was 5 years old. Vazquez, a parishioner at St. Blase in Argo, lives with her mother, stepfather and younger brother.

She didn’t get a chance to ask a question, but Pope Francis did give her a blessing.