But one Saturday afternoon the threats stopped when Jessie was beat up at cheerleading practice. Not only was she hurt physically, but her self-worth also took a hit.

“I felt like somebody just belittled me — I wasn’t worth much.”

Shortly after that episode, an e-mail went around school mocking Jessie. A girl from her youth group had taken a picture of Jessie when they were on a retreat. She cropped the photo and wrote Jessie’s name and some bad things on it. Then the girl e-mailed it, and the picture circulated around the school.

“The next thing I knew there were posters with my face and bad words in the locker rooms and the bathrooms,” Jessie says. “It stinks when you’re called bad names or when things happen to you for no reason. But the beauty is that something kept me strong. I had this almost burning feeling in my heart. I felt OK; it was comforting.”

Something Different
In ninth grade, Jessie visited a new church shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, and found that same comfort she had the year before. Jessie grew up attending church and singing in the youth group choir, but the Gospel message never connected with her. “I always knew about Jesus and God, but I never really understood that you can have a relationship with Him.”

Jessie saw something different at this church and decided she wanted to be a part of it. “I knew [the comfort I had then and now] was the presence of God. I thought, How could He be with me when I didn’t even know Him? But that’s God; He was there even when I didn’t know it. That experience is what helped me make my decision to follow Him. I’m in awe of God and what He does.”

A Different Tune
A short time later God opened Jessie’s eyes to His bigger plan and showed her that He blessed her with a voice to use for Him. Growing up near New York City, she had already been involved in acting, modeling and singing since childhood, but now she had a hunger to learn more about music that glorified God.

So Jessie left her family in New York and went to Nashville, Tenn. She attended a few music seminars and began working with various people to write some songs.

“I worked with a manager and producer back then and had a six-song EP that got a lot of cool media attention. I worked in Nashville for about three years, trying to pursue a record deal with a lot of the Christian labels, but for some reason it just didn’t click,” she says. “I thought, OK, God, do You want me here? My parents are sending me money, and I’m trying to pursue what I think You want me to do. What’s going on?”

Finally, Jessie prayed to commit her music career to God, and the next day she got a phone call from Midas Records, wanting to sign her as their first CCM launch. Jessie was signed in September 2005.

“God has used my experiences to get me this far, but I’m not stopping here. I’m not settling for less,” she says. “I sense that He understands what a sacrifice it is to be away from my family and everything. He’s constantly reassuring me that He’s there. Of course there will be times when I won’t feel secure, but that’s when my faith comes in. It has already.”

Be Different
As a Christian artist, Jessie hopes to evangelize and disciple others through Radio Disney shows and singing in churches. “I know what it’s like not to be a Christian all your life and come into a church and think, Wow. I’ve done everything wrong,” she says. “But it’s not what you stop doing, it’s what you start doing.”

One thing Jessie says to students is that to make a difference, you have to be different — different in the way you’re compassionate toward others. She lives her life by Psalm 19:14: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight.”

“For me, that’s key,” she says. “Regardless of where I am and what I’m doing, I want to stand out. But I also want to be pleasing to God.”