Her teen years may be behind her, but 25-year-old singer/songwriter Caitlin Crosby still has a message for girls: Love your flaws. The mantra, encapsulated in her debut studio album Flawz and a new website, loveyourflawz.com, has struck a chord with women her age and younger –  in a big way.

“I get notes from girls everywhere, high school and college both,” said Crosby. Through two of the album’s standout songs (“Imperfect is the New Perfect” and the record’s title track), Crosby addresses polarities that regularly confront young women: the endless pursuit for outer perfection, and what she calls “the things inside that make us real, beautiful, and unique –— the things we perceive as flaws.”

Girls who tell Crosby their stories in e-mails, social networks, and on the “Share” page of her website aren’t seeking a blanket answer to their problems– that’s not the point, she says. By communicating a consistent message of self-acceptance, “I have a remedy, but not from a preachy point of view – not like I have all the answers,” she says. She’s quick to let them know that she doesn’t; , but that may indeed be part of her appeal.

In fact, with much of her material derived from experiences growing up in Los Angeles and with both parents in the entertainment industry, Crosby knows all too well of the struggles her audience faces.  She points to her album’s fifth track, the ballad “Finding Feelings,” as an example: “I wrote it years ago, I felt myself changing for a boyfriend— – and realizing that I didn’t like it.” Her relatable style also includes some amusing anecdotes, including one that recalls her days at Beverly Hills High School: “I used to drive my dad’s old New York taxi cab, - a classic Chevy, - and one day the popular girls stuck maxi pads all over it in the parking lot.” Although she laughs about it now, humbling circumstances that take their toll on girls are also utilized in her songwriting.

What isn’t drawn from her own life is often inspired by realities she witnessed. “So many girls I knew had eating disorders and other problems; no one really felt pretty,” she says. Observing her classmates and peers, some of whom measured their self-worth by the fame of their parents “gave me so much passion to write about what I saw behind the scenes.”

But to Caitlin, self-image is only part of the big picture. Some songs on Flawz address more upbeat topics, while others tackle weighty subjects like racism, homelessness, and social hierarchies. In any case, the totality of Crosby’s message is what she calls a “re-brainwashing” effort. She explains it this way: Young women are largely accustomed to gauging themselves by physical attractiveness; but through her mediums, she aims to help them “Find those things that make you feel alive. When you’re doing what you were made to do, you’ll feel a confidence that has nothing to do with outward beauty.”

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