Claire Leslie doesn’t write songs from the other side of the struggle.
While plenty of Christian artists wait until they’ve found the breakthrough to tell the story, Leslie is comfortable sitting in the uncertainty. If she’s still wrestling with anxiety, she’ll write about anxiety. If she’s still waiting on God, she’ll write about waiting. For the 24-year-old singer-songwriter, pretending to have everything figured out would feel less honest than admitting she’s still in the middle of the process.
“I do believe now more than ever, especially this next generation, we can sniff out fake so fast. We can clock it so fast,” Leslie told RELEVANT. “If I don’t have the answers, I’m not going to pretend that I do. I’m okay with writing about not knowing the answers yet, but trusting that God has a plan through it all.”
It’s an approach that’s quickly setting Leslie apart in Christian pop. Her music pairs bright, infectious melodies with lyrics about anxiety, growing pains and learning to trust God before life makes sense. The contrast isn’t accidental. Leslie isn’t interested in choosing between honesty and hope. She wants both.
“I would say I am a Christian pop artist through and through,” she said. “I’m a sucker for all things pop and really fun, intricate melodies that are bright and colorful. But then I love to write about my faith journey and my stories of growing pains. I’m 24, so I love to write about my 20-something years.”
That perspective comes from experience.
Leslie grew up in church with three brothers, spending Sundays in worship services and Wednesdays at youth group. She learned piano by watching YouTube videos before her older brother finally convinced her to join the worship team at church. Even then, stepping behind a microphone felt impossible.
“I definitely dealt with a lot of stage fright growing up,” she said. “I genuinely was scared and anxious about being in front of people and being so vulnerable.”
She stuck with it, eventually leading worship throughout high school and college, but she never imagined music becoming a career. Instead, she studied business, communications and sociology, assuming she’d follow a more traditional path after graduation.
Instead, she found herself back home with her parents, watching friends get married and launch careers while she wrestled with panic attacks and had no idea what came next.
“I had no direction for my life,” she said. “I felt aimless.”
Counseling and therapy became an important part of her healing. So did prayer.
“I started praying, ‘God, would You use me?’” Leslie said. “I don’t really know what else to do. I’ve tried everything.”
At the time, she’d already been quietly writing songs for years but had rarely shared them with anyone. Eventually she decided to take a chance, saved enough money for a flight to Nashville and started asking strangers to coffee just to learn from people in the industry. Within a year, she’d signed with Capitol Christian Music Group.
“It really was the moment that I started realizing what I thought was my biggest weakness was actually what ended up being my biggest strength,” she said. “That’s getting to publicly lead people to God.”
The anxiety didn’t disappear with her record deal.
Leslie still talks openly about panic attacks, recommends therapy without hesitation and relies on practical rhythms when anxiety creeps in. She practices box breathing before flights, and before stepping onstage she’ll often quietly repeat one word.
“There is power in the name of Jesus,” she said. “For me, a lot of times I will just say, ‘Jesus. Jesus. In Jesus’ name.’ That will kind of bring me back to center.”
She also hopes Christians stop treating therapy as something to hide.
“Don’t be afraid to actually go get help from professional counselors or therapists,” she said. “They’ve been such good help for me. This year is the year that we can all start being a little bit more like, ‘Okay, I’m okay with being vulnerable. I’m gonna go get some help.’”
That same openness has become the defining characteristic of her songwriting.
“It definitely is kind of my safe place,” Leslie said. “A lot of times the songs sort of write themselves. It’s almost me throwing up all of my emotions and feelings onto a piece of paper—or, for me, Google Docs.”
She believes listeners, especially Gen Z, know the difference between vulnerability and performance.
“We’ve been going through this cycle of trying to look beautiful and pretty and comparing, but now we’re all just sort of sick of it,” she said. “We’re really just searching for the real thing.”
Social media, she argues, has only sharpened that instinct.
“When you’re scrolling, it’s pretty easy for us to sniff it out,” she said. “You can tell when someone’s just being their real self. I think the same goes for music.”
Leslie sees that shift happening across Christian music. Artists like Josiah Queen, Allison Eide, Tenroc and Elevation Rhythm have inspired her because they’re willing to tell honest stories instead of polished ones.
“I’m such a fan of storytelling,” she said.
As her own audience grows, Leslie hopes she’s creating that kind of space for someone else too. More and more, she notices the fans waiting to meet her after shows are middle school and high school girls, many of whom remind her of herself at 14—quietly dreaming but unsure whether God could actually use them.
“I do not take it lightly that I’ve been put in a position to be a potential role model,” she said. “For anyone who’s dreaming, use me as a living, walking testimony of what it looks like to say, ‘God, would You use me?’”
That prayer still shapes everything she writes.
“If I could choose one word, it would be joy,” Leslie said. “I would really hope and pray that when people listen to my music, they will just feel this overwhelming sense of joy. Joy only comes from the Lord.”
It’s a fitting mission for an artist whose songs never pretend life is easy. Instead, they offer something a little rarer: the reminder that joy doesn’t have to wait until the struggle is over.
