“I’m into art, and I love to paint, and recently I’ve discovered this makeup line with so many colors—it’s almost like an artist’s palette,” she says. “I really like getting up every morning and spending time painting a picture, doing my eye makeup. I feel as though I get to be like a flower, because I have these bright colors that usually you see only in nature.”

From birth until she was about 10 years old, Dawn was a towhead, but more recently her natural color has changed to a golden, dirty blond. Some time ago her hairstylist suggested dyeing it two colors. The result was platinum blond on top and dark brunette on the bottom. Now she has platinum on the left and dark on the right.

“I really like it. It’s fun on stage, because we move around a lot. I shake my head, and it’s a cool effect with the light and the dark,” she says.

Dawn knows her style is unique. Although no one has said it to her face, snide comments such as “I never would have thought she was a Christian” have been said behind her back, according to her friends.

“I’m dressed modestly, but my hair’s crazy. I have dark makeup on, and people just aren’t used to that.” Dawn says in the same way the media makes girls think they all have to dress sexy, Christian culture expects girls to fit a different mold.

“People are always trying to feel different in a way,” Dawn says. “They want to feel unique, and I think as a Christian culture, if we shape ourselves as these bland, black-and-white stick figures, it pushes people away, because it doesn’t feel honest.”

By the same token, Fireflight reminds teens to respect their parents’ wishes for how they present themselves.

No Kidding Around
Fireflight’s sophomore album, Unbreakable, and the accompanying cover art are also not textbook material for the Christian music industry. But one classic symbol can’t be missed in the front and center: a white candle’s burning flame.

“For me, the candle represents the message of God and the message of the Cross,” Dawn says. “The Bible says we’re in this world but not of it, and we’re people out here surrounded by all this sadness, depression, death and all these horrible things. The rain is falling down, but we’re standing on the side of the building. We’re doing the impossible, and we have this message to bring with us.”

In this new record, Fireflight wanted every aspect, from the pictures to the songs themselves, to be embodied with strength and intensity. “We feel this album is very powerful and has a very serious message, and we wanted to be taken seriously,” Dawn says. “We’re happy and joyful people all the time, but we want people to understand that when it comes to our music, we’re not joking. We’re for real.”

Fireflight is so serious about their message of hope and love, they’re willing to take it to whomever and wherever they can. “We try to be honest when we write, and we try to talk about what we know,” Dawn says. “We find that if you’re honest, people will always be able to relate, and it almost doesn’t matter how old they are.”

Last fall, the first single, “Unbreakable,” was the promo song for the NBC television show “Bionic Woman.” The band has also been included in music-video reels at both American Eagle and Journey’s stores across the country.

“I feel like God told me when we were first starting out that He was going to take us out to the stage of the world to share the message of His love,” Dawn says. “Every opportunity we get to be in the public eye, whether it be at a Christian or secular event, especially where there may be people who have never heard the message of God’s love presented in a way they could understand, we just want to be there.”

Dawn first experienced God’s unconditional love when she became a Christian as a sophomore in high school. Her friend Jason invited her to his church’s Sunday night small groups. At first, Dawn thought, I don’t think so! But later she changed her mind and joined a Bible study for girls.

“There was a wonderful mother of one of the girls who ran the group, and I really felt like they cared about me,” she says. “So I started going to youth group on Wednesdays, and before too long I decided I wanted to dedicate my life to Jesus. I started getting more and more involved in youth group, became a leader and grew over time to who I am today.”

Without Fear
As is true in most lives, that growth didn’t happen without some struggles. In her early 20s Dawn started to realize how profoundly the tragedy of her younger brother’s drowning about 15 years previously had affected her.

“When my little brother passed away, my parents were devastated, and I took it upon myself to make them happy,” she explains. “To do so, I felt like I always had to do the right thing, and I always had to be perfect. As a result, I grew up with a people-pleasing personality. It led me to making choices for other people instead of myself for the majority of my life.”

Dawn’s fear of letting down her parents and others prevented her from being completely abandoned to Christ. ”Some days I just felt like I let God down, and I was broken permanently,” she says. Now Dawn quotes 1 John 4:18, “Perfect love drives out fear,” as her anthem.

“If you understand how much God loves you and how perfect that love is and how powerful He is, it will drive away all the fear that you have, because you’ll start to understand that He’s protecting you,” she says. “If you’ll just rely on Him and trust Him for the choices in your life and make the decisions that you know He would have for you, there’s nothing to be afraid of, because no matter what you’ll face, He’ll pull you through.”

This resilience and strength is the backbone Fireflight describes through Unbreakable. They say the true meaning of unbreakable is not that you will never fall. It’s more that no matter what happens—from losing a friend to an eating disorder to a parents’ divorce—with God’s strength you can face it and get through it.

Watch and Listen
Check out the music video “Unbreakable” at iamunbreakable.com, and watch Dawn’s video blog made especially for our Brio sisses at fireflightrock.com/brio.