Rachel Crow, 13-Year-Old X Factor Star, Overcame Abusive Childhood

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