In watching the confident performances of X Factor’s 13-year-old vocal standout, Rachel Crow, one would never assume that the youngster was brought up in an abusive home by a birth mother who was addicted to crack cocaine.
In a recent interview with the New York Post , Crow’s adoptive mother Barbara shared the heartbreaking story, as her daughter continues to be one of 11 remaining finalists in the singing competition.
“She was born a crack baby and actually lived in a crack house and suffered a lot of abuse,” mom Barbara explained. “But she is totally unaffected by it. She never looks at (her past) in a sad way. She looks at it as that is what made her the person she is.”
Rachel was placed with Barbara and her husband Kelly as a foster child through Social Services when she was six months old and adopted by the couple one year later.
“It is not like entering into a typical private adoption,” said Barbara, revealing she did not know the identity of Rachel’s biological parents. “She came to us through Social Services. In situations like that, it is a little more dangerous, so they keep everything sealed.”
Rachel, who is being mentored by Simon Cowell on The X Factor, added to the newspaper that she isn’t looking to meet her birth parents, saying:
“I have two amazing parents already.”
Instead, the bubbly young singer says she is now concentrating on winning the competition and if she does, she intends to use the $5 million prize toward “a foundation that makes [foster kids] feel good about themselves.”
“Whether they want to sing or act or whether they want to be in sports or go to Harvard… I want to make sure they get to chase their dreams,” Rachel told the Post.
In case you’ve never had the privilege of hearing Rachel Crow sing, here is her X Factor performance from last week:
via Digital Spy
