Sarah McLachlan: Being Bullied as Teen Inspired Her Music School for At-Risk Youth

Getty Images

Sarah McLachlan, the 40 million-selling, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, seems like she's led a charmed life. Certainly her adulthood -- aside from an unfortunate divorce that she spoke to us about last year -- has been fortuitous since she launched her acclaimed career back in 1988. But McLachlan's teenage years, like many of ours, were anything but charmed as the aspiring singer says she was mercilessly bullied in high-school.

"When I say music saved me, I don't say that lightly," McLachlan tells Spinner. "I didn't fit in, I didn't get on with a lot of people and I was sort of ostracized. Music gave me a sense that I was worthwhile and that I had something of value to offer the world even though everybody was telling me that I didn't."

When the young singer traded Halifax for Vancouver and broke out with her debut album 'Touch,' she instantly captivated music fans with both her talent and beauty, so it seems absurd that just a couple years earlier she was unpopular and picked on.

"I think it's probably a more common story than you think. I was very awkward as a kid. I was a square trying to fit into a circle and it never worked for me. The harder I tried, the harder I fell. For some reason I was a real target and I got beat up and called names.