“I used to sing that I was a survivor. Then I grew up and realized I really was one.”

“Sometimes hope is the only thing we can hold when we can't control what happens next. So we hold it tightly.”

“Sometimes we don't go looking for the anthem. The anthem finds us, and reminds us there can be life on the other side of abuse.”

“I listened to ‘Fighter’ until I didn’t have to borrow its strength anymore. I finally found that strength inside myself.”

"She doesn't fix Elphaba's life. She simply chooses to stand beside the person everyone else has decided doesn't belong. Sometimes healing begins with someone willing to dance beside you."

As a child, I dreamed of justice. 'Goodbye Earl' reminded me that abuse wasn't normal and that survivors deserve better.

They changed their names to survive. History forgot many of them. We don't have to.

"The voices I heard as consciousness fled were the ones that carried me back to the light."

A survivor's journey from fear and silence to truth and freedom. The darkness may linger, but it no longer defines me.

“The ghosts of my past followed me to college, and ‘My Immortal’ became the song that helped me face them.”

Music heals. Survivors inspire. Discover the dream behind the Survivors' Anthem Series and its hopeful future.

I returned to the house where I lost my innocence - and left with peace after a cardinal landed on my shoulder. 💜

Safety matters. Every Hootie sold helps survivors feel safer, and helps donate alarms to domestic violence shelters.

I didn’t always have the words for what I was feeling, only a body that stayed on high alert. Mental health, for me, began as survival.

Trauma responses often show up as anxiety, feelings we don’t always understand until after they’ve already taken over.

Sometimes the songs we hold onto as children are the ones that quietly teach us to believe in something better.

Sometimes the very things that tried to break you become the fuel that pushes you forward.

Telling my mom about the abuse I endured was the hardest conversation of my life, but breaking the silence was part of healing.

“Sometimes a song finds you when you’re hurting - and then years later it finds you again to remind you how far you’ve come.”

We were both carrying guilt for each other that never belonged to either of us.