GTG asked: What is the main message of your story?

My story is about the things that happened to me when I was a child. I didn’t have the best childhood and I know that’s relatable to a lot of people. Basically what I was trying to give to people is that no matter what you go through you are not your past – you grow from your pain and you can grow from pain, that’s why toward the end of my story I made sure it was a positive ending just to prove that point that you are not your past or your pain, you grow from it.

GTG asked: What would you like young women to take away?

I want women to feel like you can be strong as women – that your abuse is not you and you shouldn’t let your pain and your past make you who you are. I was looking at certain stories and they left on a bad note . . . they made me sad . . . like they had no hope, that’s why I made sure in mine I gave them something positive from the whole thing.

Women we need to stick together and we need to be strong together. We need to learn how to be strong in all reality, some women don’t stick together and some will be like, “It’s her fault.” I have never thought it, but people did that to my mom. I’ve been through it because the abuser disguises himself as the good guy all the time; it would hurt me when women would be like, “Maybe it’s her fault”. And women we should know each other because we are all one, and we need to stand up and stick up for each other.