B.C. teen inspired by late mom to write empowering song

"It connects me to her." Adam finds out how a Saanich teen is being inspired by her late mom to inspire others through song.

SAANICH, B.C. — If you ask Olivia Hahn what she’s listening to, she just might tell you about “a small-town girl.”

“Living in a lonely world,” the 18-year-old laughs, finishing the opening lyrics to the Journey hit “Don’t Stop Believin.’”

The song was her and her mom’s go-to at karaoke, and what Olivia played for her in hospital the day before she died.

“It connects me to her,” Olivia smiles. “It reminds me of the joy we shared through the song.”

Although joy was elusive when CTV News first met Olivia a few years ago when grief was everywhere.

“It made me feel like I was different or weird,” Olivia said.

She also felt alone after failing to find a book about loss from a teenager’s perspective, so the then-15-year-old wrote her own.

“I wanted to write something that would help me through it,” Olivia said. “But also help other people as well.”

After publishing a trio of books in support of palliative care, and volunteering with youth grief programs, Olivia began modelling at fundraising fashion shows, which led to meeting men with ulterior motives.

“My mom always told me, ‘Watch out for the guys who are too good to be true,’” Olivia says. “But you don’t really know it until you learn it.”

So, Olivia started writing about her bad feelings, but unlike with the books, it wasn’t making her feel better.

“But music does,” Olivia says. “(So) I decided to write a song.”

Olivia wasn’t deterred by the fact that she’d never written a song before.

“I’ve seen that life is so short,” Olivia says. “To not go for what you want, to not try, is failing.”

So, Olivia started trying to set her words to music, teamed up with a professional producer, and spent the next five months recording a song and making a music video.

Olivia hopes the song, ‘Lust Over Love’, empowers listeners who’ve felt diminished by another to realize their self-worth and transform their pain into positivity.

“I wanted to inspire other people,” Olivia says. “Because my mom inspired me.”

Her mom, who Olivia has no doubt is singing along with her song from above, who is proud her “small town girl” is growing up to be strong young woman who won’t “stop believin’” in her herself.