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NEW JERSEY COPS ■ MAY 2014
Cop of the charts
Seventeen-year-old Kelsey Coan draws
inspiration from anti-bullying message and
other experiences close to her law
enforcement father to make beautiful music.
By the time she reached middle school, Kelsey Coan – daughter of Camden County Corrections Officer Anthony Coan – was
beginning to feel left out. Her favorite activities – singing, dancing and acting – set her apart from her peers who seemed happier just following the pack.
“They only cared about sports or walking the streets and gossiping about others who weren’t up to their ‘standards,’” Kelsey
recalled. “They made fun of not only the things I enjoyed, but
also the way I looked: my clothes, how I did my hair, that I didn’t wear makeup or that I wasn’t ‘thin’ like a model.”
Kelsey used to make up illnesses just so she could stay home
and avoid the bullies.
“I just couldn’t take the mental bullying every day anymore,”
she admitted.
Finally, Kelsey’s parents, Anthony and Terri, pulled their
daughter out of public school. She moved to a private school for
seventh and eighth grade, and is now homeschooled.
Still, auditions at theater camp and for a traveling show choir
placed Kelsey in the background, hearing critiques such as “you
could try again next year,” or “we will keep you in mind.” At this
point, Kelsey felt like maybe she wasn’t “good enough.”
It took a visit to a local recording studio for things to turn
around.
“Each engineer from those studios told me I had a ‘unique
and wholesome’ voice and that I should be proud of myself,”
Kelsey related. “This made me feel so good inside. For the first
time, besides my family of course, I was told t ]H