JoJo Jeffers sings and plays her guitar on her bedroom floor in Pilot Rock on Wednesday, March 30, 2022.

PILOT ROCK — JoJo Jeffers credits her escape from depression to an old guitar and a song that she says God planted in her heart.

The song, “Identity,” came out April 19 and is available on Spotify and eventually on other platforms.

Jeffers, 19, started singing as a tiny girl who used her toothbrush as a microphone. She helped lead singing in church from age 13, sometimes performing solos with the worship team at Life Church in Pilot Rock where her father is pastor.

JoJo’s struggle with depression started during her freshman year at Pilot Rock High School. She often holed up in her bedroom after school, sitting on the carpeted floor and writing into a black leather journal. The turmoil raging inside seemed more serious than typical teenage angst. She considered suicide and tried cutting. She carefully hid her struggle from her parents, Harley and Dawn Jeffers.

“Once they found out, they loved me through it,” Jeffers said.

But, in the midst of it, her thoughts took her to painful places.

“I just started believing these lies that I was unloved,” she recalled. “That I was unworthy. I just closed myself off from the world. I’d sit there and dwell on my feelings.”

One day, Jeffers picked up a beat-up guitar that someone at church had given her after rescuing the dusty instrument from the attic where it had sat for years. With her fingers becoming calloused from playing, the teen mastered chords learned from YouTube videos. She accompanied herself singing while sitting crosslegged on her bedroom floor. Over time, depression loosened its grip.

In her sophomore year, she decided to write a song. This first stab at songwriting came after a heartfelt prayer in which she told God she felt lost and like a stranger lived in her head. Though she had stepped back in her Christian faith at the time, she believed the song that flowed out was God’s response to her prayer.

“He just took my hand and wrote it all on paper for me,” Jeffers said. “It doesn’t really feel like it’s mine.”

The lyrics seemed to speak directly to her, telling her she was worthy and loved. Jeffers, now a freshman at Blue Mountain Community College, sang the song to her parents and they were impressed. Encouraged, she shared a video on Facebook of herself singing the song. A woman Jeffers didn’t know messaged that the song helped her deal with her own struggle. Family friend and professional singer Ericka Corban saw the video too and encouraged her.

Corban had originally met Jeffers in 2010 when Corban, her husband and their young children stopped at McDonald’s in Pendleton on their way home to the Washington coast from a concert. She started chatting with Dawn Jeffers and 9-year-old JoJo. Corban has since performed at the Jeffers’ church and mentored JoJo, who she says has music in her bones. After seeing the video, she pushed the teen to record it.

“When something moves you like that, you know it’s special,” Corban said.

She connected Jeffers with Brandon Bee, a Kennewick producer, singer and songwriter. Last fall, Jeffers met Bee on Zoom and then traveled to Tri-Cities in February to record her song in his studio.

“She’s a natural,” he said afterwards. “When I see a natural, it’s typically somebody who really has a connection with their songs and they don’t care who’s in the room. They’re just going to present the song in the most authentic way.”

To calm Jeffers’ nerves, the producer urged her to imagine herself back on her bedroom floor.

“It was just her and her guitar,” Bee said. “I added some production for sure, but I really did try to paint around what she already had. I wanted to keep it close to what she did naturally.”

Bee said he normally tells aspiring singer/songwriters that their first song is something they need to get through so they can get to their next thing and then the next.

“But I don’t really think that was the case with this one,” he said. “The song was so good all on its own. This wasn’t just something she had to get done. It’s the real deal.”

At BMCC, Jeffers serves as an ambassador for the school. She plans to work toward a degree in counseling. Jeffers doesn’t know where music will take her, but envisions nothing with big stage lights, fame and fortune.

“If this is something that glorifies me, I don’t want it in the long run,” she said. “The goal is to glorify God and not me.”

She continues to write songs for a future album. Her twin, Trent, who has a passion for photography, is shooting photos for the album cover.