EDITOR'S NOTE: This story first aired in June 2015.
Sometimes a song can change people's lives. And sometimes, one of those people is the singer.
In 2012, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis asked Mary Lambert to help complete their gay rights anthem, "Same Love."
"There's sort of this hole here," she remembers they told her. "'Can you fill this?' And then, when they sent me the song, I was just like, are you kidding me? This is my story. I was born to write this song."
She came up with four different choruses. They used every one.
The groundbreaking hit song and video tells a story of people struggling for acceptance. People like Mary.
As a teenager growing up in Everett, she loved her church.
"And then I started having feelings for girls," Mary recalls.
She asked God for forgiveness every day. Then, she says, she figured it out. She had nothing to be sorry for.
Now, she celebrates pain and bends it into something beautiful.
"Vulnerability, I think, can save the world."
The Cornish graduate goes deep with her work, exploring issues of sexuality, suicide, and body image. But laughter is always part of the message.
Mary has capitalized on her success with the release of her first album, "Heart On My Sleeve", and the hit single, "Secrets". It's a buoyant, poppy song that shines a spotlight on her insecurities and elevates them into traits to be admired.
Mary Lambert's songs of honesty and courage really are changing lives. Starting with her own.
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