Pattie Mallette was a young child lost in a terrible maelstrom of trauma, neglect, and suffering long before she became well-known as the mother of a worldwide celebrity. Her early years were shattered by terrible sexual abuse, a painful secret she kept for years. Pattie, like many young people who had survived abuse, was overwhelmed by feelings of guilt, shame, and self-blame. She absorbed the trauma, thinking that she was somehow inherently flawed and accountable for the atrocities committed on her.
The emotional burden was too much for her to handle by the time she was a teenager. Pattie fell into a dark, hopeless place as a result of her acute depression and attempts to take drugs to dull her suffering. She tried suicide when she reached her lowest point. In retrospect, she would characterize that horrific time as the sad result of years of unresolved trauma coupled with the risky escape of drugs and alcohol, which only made her reality more terrifying.
At the youthful age of seventeen, Pattie found out she was pregnant during this difficult recuperation phase.
Her situation appeared to be a prescription for catastrophe to the outside world. She was a teenager, single, jobless, struggling with serious mental health problems, and still recovering from a lifetime of abuse. The pressure started to increase almost instantly from every direction. She was persuaded to abandon the pregnancy by friends, relatives, and counselors who said she was too young, too poor, and too unstable to have a kid. They assured her that it was the only sensible option to preserve her own future.
However, Pattie sensed a deep, indisputable change in her soul. She rejected the overwhelming urge to abort even though she had no idea how she would manage the enormous burden of parenting, how she would pay for food, or how she would survive. She firmly and resolutely decided to give her unborn child a chance at life.
For the young mother, the day she gave birth to her son, Justin Bieber, was nothing short of amazing. In the birth room, most mothers hear a frantic, draining howl, but Pattie heard something very different. To her, her baby boy’s first cry sounded like lovely, well-structured music. Wrapped in the sterile warmth of a hospital ward, Pattie realized her life had found its ultimate purpose at that very moment. Regardless of the challenges that were ahead, she promised to love and protect him.
Being a young, single mother and raising a child turned out to be an enormously difficult task. Living in low-income housing, Pattie and her young boy were largely dependent on government aid and food banks to make ends meet. She returned to school, took low-paying jobs, and gave up all comforts to make sure Justin had food on his table and clothes on his back. Pattie’s dedication to her son remained unwavering despite the innumerable nights of stress and tiredness. She gave him everything she had, developing his innate skill, teaching him to play instruments, and fostering his early passion in music.
Those sacrifices would pay off years later in a way that defied all odds. Equipped with an inexpensive video camera, Pattie started posting footage of her little son performing at local events so that family members who lived far away could watch him. She just wanted to share her son’s gift; she had no lofty goals of becoming famous.
Rather, the music industry was drawn to such straightforward home movies. The boy she worked so hard to bring into the world went from being a small-town kid busking on the steps of local theaters to becoming a multi-platinum, world-famous pop icon in a matter of short years.
Eventually, Pattie would write about her amazing journey in Nowhere But Up: The Story of Justin Bieber’s Mom, an honest and profoundly touching memoir. In order to educate other lost and heartbroken young people that their past does not have to control their future, she openly discussed the terrible facts of her history in its pages, rather than dwelling on her victimization. She hoped that anyone going through the lowest points of abuse, sadness, or adolescent pregnancy would find hope in her narrative.
Looking back on her life as a proud and accomplished mother, Pattie freely acknowledges that when she was a teenager with a positive pregnancy test, she did not have all the answers. She felt completely alone, unfit, and afraid. Nevertheless, she was steadfast in her resolve to provide her child with the greatest life possible.
Her life narrative serves as a powerful example of human resiliency, the strength of faith, and the remarkable, life-changing power of a mother’s unwavering love. Pattie Mallette not only altered her own fate by deciding to defend her unborn son against all obstacles, but she also permanently altered the course of modern music history.