"Life isn't about how popular you are. What girl or boy you are dating or who you know. Life is about always being true to who you are or what you believe in. Never let anyone convince you that their way is better than your way. In the end all we have is our hearts... and our minds. This is the reason why we sing... this is the reason why we cry... this is why we live. Fuck the rest.” —.Andrew Dennis Beirsak (more commonly known as Andy Six).

This quote means so much to people all over the world. People like me. He (and his band, Black Veil Brides) stand for so much. They stand for things like never giving in, always staying true to who you are and love, even through the pain. Put all of that together, and you find hope. Though on the outside, they may not seem like this. They might seem like a bunch of people trying to gain fame by appealing to rebellious teenagers, but never judge a book by its cover. You might just end up saying something like my mom does when my sister, Kristen, and I try to convince her to open her mind and give them a chance. “I will not listen to that I-Hate-My-Parents Shit!”

Even the song titles push you into my mother’s state of mind if you don’t really look at them, as in Perfect Weapon, or hear the song, like The Morticians Daughter. They’re music shows their true intensions. Unlike some people, they aren’t trying to gain publicity by say that they’re grateful for their fans. You can often see in interviews with them that their music is not something to make money off of, but something they are trying to say to us. I could go on for so long listing what the meanings might be, but I won’t put you through that. I will say that the most common messages are that we are not alone, and we can count on them 24/7 and that we need to be ourselves.

For fans, or bridesmaids and ushers, they are our hope. They help us when we feel like we should give up and stop fighting for who we are. That’s what they aim to do. They want to help us. In one interview, Andy tells us that as a kid he went to a catholic school where he was constantly pushed into lockers and alienated for who he is—or more so how he dressed, since these people never bothered to actually figure him out. He also says that fans have told him before that they have been bullied and persecuted about moronic things, such as style and the ability to be who they are, The band always stays after concerts for meet-and-greets, they don’t take it as a privilege only for those who bought back stage passes. He emphasizes that almost everyone who had ever been in the band, other bands or even just stood up for themselves, had these same experiences, and that we didn’t have to go through them alone.

These are the people we should be taught to look up to. Not just Black Veil Brides, but anyone who can be themselves without trying to stop other people from being themselves, even if it’s different than them. The people who can be will stop everything to show that they care about complete strangers problems, problems that they could live their entire lives without ever affecting them, yet they still stop and talk to and help these people who are suffering. They are the best of humanity, the rarest of them all.