Halsey
As she recalled her days of being homeless as a teenager in New York, pop star Halsey revealed that she was once tempted to turn to prostitution just so she could make ends meet.
“My friends were picking out decorations for their dorms, and I was debating on whether or not I should let a stranger inside of me so I could pay for my next meal,” she was quoted as saying by Us Weekly magazine in her speech at the recent Ending Youth Homelessness benefit event for the youth center My Friend’s Place.
“A series of unfortunate events,” she said, led her to her predicament back then.
“It wasn’t because I did something bad or [there was] something wrong with me. And it wasn’t because my parents didn’t love me, because they did very much … But it can happen to absolutely anyone,” related the “Without Me” singer, who realized just how fortunate she was to meet Capitol Music Group representative Jeremy Vuernick at that point in her life, who helped her enter the music industry.
“I had crazy hair, had one demo in my pocket and was carrying a gray duffel bag,” she said. “He asked, ‘What’s in the bag?’ I looked at him and said, ‘This is my house.’”
Homelessness is an “epidemic,” Halsey stressed. And she vowed to give back to My Friend’s Place, which takes care of those who are displaced. “It’s more than young people needing validation and needing people to listen to them—it’s life or death,” she said. —ALLAN POLICARPIO