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Jeffersonville teen says being bullied fueled passion to reach stardom

Elijah Kelso's family says he is born for the spotlight but his path to get there hasn't been easy.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jeffersonville, Indiana native Elijah Kelso has been singing since the age of three. By the age of four, he was hitting the audition stage. By the age of 6 he sang the national anthem for the Louisville Bats.

“When Elijah isn’t singing you know he’s sick. Because he sings every day. Every day of his life,” Joey Kelso-McStoots, Elijah’s mom, said.

It’s something he still does as a 17-year-old.

“My whole entire life, anytime I was sad or upset about something I would just sing about it,” Elijah said.

But as he grew and started to chase his passion, his mom says he wasn’t always understood.

“People used to tease him about it, and bully him,” she said.

She recalls multiple accounts of her son being bullied in middle school.

Credit: Kelso Family
Elijah Kelso singing at the age of 4

“You know he’d been beaten up again, three or four times in middle school,” she said.

As a mom, she said it was hard to watch.

“Bullying in our nation now is horrible, there are so many kids that are bullied,” Kelso-McStoots said.

But Elijah says it’s made him stronger.

“Because of that it made me work harder,” Elijah said.

He and his parents decided it was best to pull him out of school and instead enroll him in online school through Indiana Digital Learning School.

“It was a flexible schedule,” Elijah said, which allows him to continue acting and singing opportunities in the community.

His mom says it also provides him with a safe environment.

“He didn’t have to worry, what’s going to happen to me today,” Kelso-McStoots said.

He’s been picked up by a talent agency and is now at work pursuing his passion. He hopes to someday produce and perform his own music.

“This year I’m hoping to eventually release an album. That’s something I want to do,” Elijah said.

►Contact reporter Abby Lutz at alutz1@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

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