BBR Music GroupLindsay Ell bravely tells her story as a survivor of sexual assault in her new song, “make you.”
In an interview with People, Lindsay shares that the song is inspired by her experience of being raped by a man at her church in her native Calgary, Canada when she was 13. She says she was sexually assaulted again when she was 21.
After visiting with a group of teen girls at Youth For Tomorrow in 2017, an organization in Virginia that supports young women who’ve experienced sexual abuse, Lindsay felt compelled to tell her story to the girls and knew then it was time to share it publicly.
Co-written by Lindsay and Brandy Clark, “make you” explores the pain that Lindsay felt in the wake of the traumatic event, sharing in the lyrics that she felt “dirty” and built up walls that closed her off from others. Lindsay also shows how the effect of that experience followed her throughout her life and felt like a “new scar” years later.
“You’ll feel angry/You’ll feel sad/Once you see it’s not your fault/And that canyon in your chest/Is the little girl you lost,” she sings.
“Part of me talking about it now is liberating the little 13-year-old Lindsay and the 21-year-old Lindsay. Pain is something we can let control us if we don’t deal with it, but the minute you put a voice to your story the shame has no power,” Lindsay says.
“Make you” is featured on Lindsay’s upcoming album, heart theory, that’s set for release on August 14.
Coinciding with the song, Lindsay is also launching the Make You Movement, a charitable fund to aid organizations supporting at-risk youth who are domestic abuse and sexual violence survivors.
By Cillea Houghton
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