Wednesday's Woman: Jamie Grace

Jamie Grace

Today’s guest blogger knows a little about helping youth.  Thirteen years ago, Miranda began working with children at summer camp.  During her time as a college student, she split her time and worked part of the summer overseas in the Ukraine with children and teens in orphanages, providing a camp-like program for them. 

Today Miranda does most of her work with youth through her local church.  She states, 

“Since having to join the "real world" and work at a job where I don’t get the summers off to do things like that, my work with children and youth is primarily done so in my local church. I help teach, I help plan events, and I help chaperone almost every trip. In fact, last week I accompanied our youth on a mission trip out of state where teens and adults come together to be broken into work groups that go into a community to paint, put on new roofs, or build handicap ramps. The organization that coordinates this works in conjunction with the local united way to find those who need the help.”

Miranda’s choice for Wednesday’s Woman speaks to the importance of not only working with children, but also of encouraging them to share their stories.  Her honoree is sharing hers and is a life-lesson in courage, hope, and inspiration for those navigating through a world where they find themselves to be different.  After you read Miranda's article, be sure to visit her at Becoming My Ideal.

Wednesday's Woman:  Jamie Grace Harper

by Miranda

Jamie Grace

When first being asked to guest post for Wednesday’s Woman, there was one person that popped into my thoughts immediately.  I delayed writing a piece on her because I thought that I might think of somebody else who would be a “more suitable” subject to write about.  However, this young lady stayed with me and so I am paying tribute to Jamie Grace Harper.

Jamie Grace, as she is more widely known, is a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter categorized in the Contemporary Christian Music genre.  If your radio doesn’t stay tuned to a local CCM station (don’t worry - mine doesn’t either), you may have heard her song “Hold Me” playing during some recent commercials for Belk department stores.  She is an artist that had the fortune of being discovered on YouTube by a fellow CCM artist, Toby Mac.  At just the age of twenty, she has recently graduated from college despite having to simultaneously handle the pressures of a booming new career in the music industry.


You may have guessed by her musical genre that her faith is a big part of her story and I will admit that it’s also a big part of why I identify with her.  However, it’s not the reason that I chose to write about her.  Earlier this year, I attended a conference with a group of teen girls where Jamie Grace was one of the performers and speakers.  It was there that I learned of a situation in her life and found her to be a great role model not just for teen girls, but for anyone.

At the age of nine, Jamie Grace began noticing things happening with her body that were not right.  These things became more prevalent over the next two years and, at age eleven, she was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome.  She shared with an auditorium full of teen girls how, in a time where all she wanted to do was fit in, her body was doing things that made her completely stand out – and not necessarily in a good way.  The disorder obviously caused things that caught the attention of some of her peers. 

Jamie Grace on M-TIC.org

My heart ached for her as she relayed how she would stand in front of her mirror for hours, arms crossed in front of her, practicing how to control the tics that the disorder caused.  It made me sad to hear her tell how she would be sure to sit on her feet any time she was in a group setting because, if she was sitting on them, the tic wouldn’t be visible.  Jamie Grace finished her story by sharing how, in the end, she learned that her mom had always been right – she really did need to just be herself.  Despite the fears she had about what others would think of her, she realized that her differences gave made her unique and gave her a special outlook on life.  And now she is using her story to help others. 

As someone who works with children and teens, it pains me to hear of the things that they have to experience on a daily basis.  I am increasingly troubled by the prevalence of bullying amongst this age group.  Hearing Jamie Grace’s story, I was reminded of the many young people that I’ve seen on the news or read about online that have had others ridicule them for being different, whether it was a weight issue, a medical issue, or even no issue beyond the fact that the other person was just a bully.  These victims need somebody that they can identify with, somebody that they can look to as a role model, somebody whose story can give them hope.  I believe that Jamie Grace is such a person.

It touched me that Jamie Grace uses the audience that she’s been given to share her experience in order to encourage others.  We are not ever guaranteed that our lives will be easy; most of us will face some type of bump along our road of life.  But maybe in the future, when we begin to worry about what others will think of our personality, our clothes, our disorders, or our general goofiness, we will take the advice of Jamie Grace (and her mom) and simply be ourselves.

Photo Credit: By Jamiegraceh [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons