Growing up in Buffalo, New York, Caley Rose assumed that having positive self-esteem was an inherent quality she just didn’t have. “[I thought] that cool girl in French class just had that ‘it’ factor and that confidence, and I was just out of luck,” Rose says.
Even worse, she was bullied in middle school, experiences that altered the way she saw herself for more than a decade. When Rose eventually became a Billboard-charting pop musician and singer-songwriter, her lack of self-confidence negatively impacted how she performed on stage and in social situations. After graduating from college, she was determined to shed her insecure middle school self and become the confident person she wanted to be. “I wanted to become someone who could like myself and love myself,” says Rose, who now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two young children.
Through therapy, self-development courses and research, she finally achieved her goal. Now, Rose is spreading the gospel of self-love across the nation through Music with a Message, a program dedicated to empowering students and women through music. By partnering with child and teen psychologists, Rose designed an interactive, music-filled assembly that blends her motivating upbeat tunes with approachable methods for preventing bullying and building self-confidence. “[Music with a Message] started really just based on, ‘This is what I needed as a kid, and this is what I hope I can help young women through,’” she says.
Since Rose founded Music with a Message about three years ago, it has reached more than 100,000 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade. Rose has also brought her messaging to women’s shelters and even took the program on a cross-country tour in an Airstream with her family in 2023, stopping at different schools to perform. At the high-energy assemblies, students are encouraged to get up and dance and sing—elements that set Music with a Message apart from other confidence-building programs.
Rose rewrote some of her popular songs focused on female empowerment to appeal to audiences of all ages and genders. The lyrics are packed with positive messages and affirmations—short statements that people repeat to themselves to improve their self-esteem and confidence—which Rose hopes will stick with students through adolescence and adulthood. For example, one of her most popular songs, “Brave Ones,” features the lines: “When you feel like giving up / When you feel like you’re not strong enough / You’re one of the brave ones… I am strong / I am kind / I’ll get through / I’ll get through.”
“Music lasts with us our entire lives,” Rose says. “It works on our subconscious through affirmations. If we start to listen to music that has words in it, like ‘I’m strong / I can get through this hard time,’ we start to look for that in our environment and look for more evidence to prove to ourselves that those affirmations are true.”
Students leave Music with a Message assemblies with catchy, encouraging tunes in their heads to help them reframe their negative thoughts to focus on possibilities. If the attendees are younger kids, Rose focuses the program on what characteristics make them “brave ones” and small things that can help them build confidence throughout the day, such as helping out a parent or friend.
For middle school and high school programs, Rose adds lessons on how to implement a growth mindset. This way of thinking, which recognizes that knowledge and talent can be developed through hard work and help from others, can help youngsters become resilient and cultivate a love of learning. (Conversely, individuals with a fixed mindset view intelligence and abilities as stable and unchangeable traits and often shy away from challenges.)
The response to Music with a Message has been extremely positive, Rose says. “I’ve had some incredible stories told to me by the older students,” she says. “I think through showing my vulnerability and telling them about my dark times, they’ve felt comfortable coming forward and sharing their own.”
Self-confidence and having a growth mindset aren’t just vital to success in individuals’ personal and private lives—it can save lives. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the suicide rate among young people ages 10-24 increased 62% from 2007 to 2021, while the American Psychological Association noted in 2023 that an increasing number of adolescents reported feelings of loneliness, hopelessness, sadness and suicidal ideation.
“I didn’t think that I would be talking about taking one’s life by suicide when I started this journey with Music with a Message, but that’s what it’s become, and I’m so thankful that I can help people avoid that—especially young people. When we have self-confidence and we possess a growth mindset, that’s something that’s going to get us through adversity.”
In 2024, Music with a Message gained its first sponsor, which allowed it to begin offering scholarships and partial scholarships to schools who have little or no assembly budget or are dealing with bullying issues and hardship. Rose was also able to expand her team, which includes several working moms, and hire another performer for assemblies to expand the program’s reach. “If there’s an assembly at 2 o’clock in Philadelphia that I can’t get to, she will be able to go there,” Rose says.
Rose also says she released an album, titled Brave Ones, in early 2025 and hopes to eventually bring Music with a Message to schools around the world. She says, “I want to reach every single school, every single student.”
How to become a ‘Brave One’
Need a self-confidence boost? Here, Rose shares four tips.
1. Accept that loving yourself is possible.
“Wanting to like ourselves is the first step and then finding ways to appreciate ourselves,” she says.
2. Remember that your thoughts aren’t who you are.
Rose often walks students through a meditative exercise to help them observe and hit pause on their thoughts. “If we can find a tiny space in between those thoughts, whether they’re negative or positive or weird, we actually can discover that the essence of who we are isn’t a negative thought or a positive thought,” she says. “It’s actually the calm and the silence underneath those thoughts.”
3. Name the positives.
Rose encourages individuals to look in the mirror and name three things you’re grateful for or like about yourself every day. “If you choose to focus on those positive things, again, those positive things will expand and become what we focus on more,” she says.
4. Keep going.
“With students, I’m constantly saying the most important two words that you can remember today are ‘keep going’ because it will get easier if you decide to work on yourself and you decide that you want to work on loving yourself and liking yourself and growing your self-confidence.”
Photo courtesy of Caley Rose. This article originally appeared in the May/June 2025 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
