Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennette Booth.
Hi Jennette, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As a daughter, sister, niece, and friend of child sexual abuse survivors, I have seen firsthand how much suffering it causes. But it wasn’t until my child was abused that this issue took center stage for me and I began to wonder what I could do to prevent this kind of abuse from ruining another childhood.
I am a songwriter. We all have some experience with how well children learn (and retain what they learn) when it is set to music. It struck me one night that maybe you could do the same with the safety concepts that help prevent abuse.
At first, I brushed off the idea thinking this was one topic you just couldn’t sing about. But the thought persisted and I decided, why not just give it a try?
Within a week, five songs had begun to take shape and it was clear this could be done. I spent the next five years researching, composing, editing, rewriting, and finally producing a collection of 13 children’s songs called “The Body Safety Songs.”
I illustrated lyric videos to go with each song so they could be posted to YouTube and viewed for free by children everywhere. It became a family project as the vocals were then recorded by five of my children, aged from 5 to 13 years of age. At that point, I applied for the title of Mrs. Rocky Mountain and prepared to compete in the Mrs. Utah Pageant to begin sharing my message of preventing child sexual abuse and promoting the songs.
The songs debuted at a Launch Party/Community Safety Fair on March 16, 2023. It was an informational tabling event that included local organizations like OURescue, Prevent Child Abuse Utah, Primary Children’s Hospital, Pinwheel Phones, Defend Young Minds, etc., and our local police department.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have nine children, so most of the work and research I put into the songs was in the cracks of our busy family life. During the “Netflix” hours or movie nights or when everyone else was in bed.
When I felt like the songs were ready to turn into minus tracks for recording, I needed to purchase new software and a new computer. When we first got the computer, it crashed within the first month, taking several of my music files with it. My husband was able to get it up and running again (also in the cracks of busy family life, so it took a long time to get everything set up and recovered). I got to work again, only to have the computer crash again. And then again. This time we felt certain it was the computer itself, but the warranty had expired and I couldn’t afford to buy another one.
My husband kept digging deeper and was finally able to figure out the component he thought was corrupted.
Miraculously that finally solved it, but it had taken four months and summer was upon us which meant all nine kids would be home full time and there would be very little time to work on the songs. It wasn’t until the fall that I was able to really dig in and make significant progress again, so we were nine months behind where we’d hoped to be.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a small business owner of an LLC called Sound Booth Studios (yes, that’s a play on my last name: Booth). It has two main branches. One is education: teaching private piano, voice, violin, and guitar lessons, arranging popular music to match students’ skill levels, and supporting auditions, festivals, and other musical events in the community.
The second is composing and producing original sheet music, audio recordings, and music videos. I also often volunteer at the local schools in their choral and theater departments.
What are your plans for the future?
I want to share The Body Safety Songs with the world, reach as many families as I can, and help remove the awkwardness and guesswork that lurk around this topic. I want to see a decline in the statistics around child sexual abuse. Preventing abuse takes the whole community, so I’m working to create a safe adult pledge program on my website that will help those who take the pledge be more capable in this role.
I post a weekly tiny talk challenge to the body safety songs and social media accounts that give parents a small conversation prompt, breaking the topic of abuse prevention into tiny, frequent bites, and creating a culture of ease around this topic. I plan to create interactive children’s books to go with each song, that will include talking points for parents. Within the next 5 years. I’d like to translate all this media into Spanish. And for my next project, I’d like to write a collection of children’s mental health songs.
Pricing:
- Body Safety Songs Album: $24.99
- Watch on the website or YouTube: FREE
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bodysafetysongs.org
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/bodysafetysongs?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BodySafetySongs?mibextid=ZbWKwL
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennette-booth-body-safety-songs-843147101
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@bodysafetysongs
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/body-safety-songs-salt-lake-city
Image Credits
Mark Reynolds, Jeshua Jay, Colin Booth, Julia Booth, Caleb Booth, Brigham Booth, Gloria Booth, Jenson Booth, Lydia Booth, Bronson Booth, and Vienna Booth,
