Rachel Crow, a girl from the small town of Mead, Colorado, never imagined that she would have a voice to impact the world.
From her grim childhood in the foster care system to being voted top five on the “X Factor,” Crow’s journey of impacting the world has just begun. She appears in the Disney movie “Invisible Sisters,” which aired Oct. 9.
She recently shared her story with rolling out.
What path did you take to become successful in the music industry?
Being a 13-year-old in the music industry was a little bit tough and I definitely enjoyed growing up the last couple of years and really finding myself. It has been a really great journey with my family and I’m so happy to be finally coming out with new music soon and just sort of reinventing myself.
Your single, “Mean Girls,” what was the inspiration behind this song?
My inspiration was that I grew up in a very small town in Colorado and I was very different from everyone around me. My skin color was different, my hair was different, my personality was different, I wore different clothing and I was just a very different person and it took a lot for me and a lot of soul searching to find out that being different is a great thing and it’s OK not to fit in. My song was from personal experience, I always was bullied and had to sit at my own table at lunch and that kind of stuff, but the whole point of the song wasn’t to make myself a victim, but rather a stronger person.
You are starring in the Disney Channel original movie “Invisible Sister.” What should viewers know about your character, Nikki?
When I heard that I was going to be filming this in New Orleans, I was so excited. I’ve never spent a lot of time there, I think I’ve only been there once or twice for very a short time. It was a really cool experience living in a hotel and living somewhere else for a couple of months. I made some lifelong friends on the set, got really close with the director, producers, it was just truly a remarkable experience and it helped me grow as a person. I think Nikki is very outgoing, fun, loving, and really relies on Molly, who is her best friend, and they kind of are two peas in a pod. They love the same things and they’re just really special girls.
At such a young age you have had so much success and have been an amazing example for young girls; but your life wasn’t as easy as the regular child. What was your childhood like before you were adopted?
I was born in a crack house and then three months later, social services found me. They took me to a foster home where I got the care I needed because I had been through some abuse and trauma. Three months after that, my parents saw me when they walked in, they were looking at babies to adopt and meeting kids and they walked in and saw me. I looked up at my dad and said, “Hi” and that was it. They knew that I was theirs so they took me home at 6 months old. They’ve taught me to follow my dreams and to not be weak, to always be strong and happy, and healthy, and love life, be kind, generous and thoughtful.
Some people would have used those life experiences as an excuse to not follow their dreams or aspire to be successful in life. How have you used your journey to fuel your dreams or passion to help other young people?
I definitely use this journey as a sort of gate way to help kids in the foster care system. I have had the pleasure to meet some incredible men, women, and children that are all out of foster care or in foster care. I have had the pleasure of meeting someone who is over 30 years old that got adopted. Because if you really think about it, there is not an age when you don’t need your family anymore. And so that really hit me hard, it was just a couple of months ago, and so I decided that about three years ago that I’m going to help the world. My mom and I started working with National Adoption Day and visited kids. I just did a Broadway show and we raised money for these kids to help and do our part. I think it’s a big issue especially in the state of the New York; kids are aging out and they are just throwing them in the streets because they don’t have funding to keep them anymore. I’m going to be 18 in a couple of months and I can’t think about not having a home or warm food at night. These are things that several of these kids are going through every single day, so I definitely want to be something that can inspire change.
–dasia tyler
