I was fifteen years old when I walked in my first runway show, fourteen when I signed my contract and started training. In my short professional career I walked in an Urban Outfitters show, been in magazines, had my picture front page of the paper and the many times my picture was blown up front and center in the paper. My favorite memory is when my friends in high school went out all over the city to find the magazine I was in. If you would have told me a month before my contract was signed I'd be in countless fashion campaigns, I'd say you were crazy. I started modeling when I had to drop out of going to school full time. I had been diagnosed with clinical depression, a severe biological anxiety disorder, and I was showing signs of PTSD.

I was bullied horrendously throughout grade school. By freshman year, teachers and students expressing such hatred of my existence for years had finally taken its toll. I started over at a new private school sophomore year. In the three years I spent there I survived an abusive relationship and I found out how hard it can be when you are the only vocal conservative in an entire school.

It's taken me years of therapy and countless hours of self reflection to learn that it will always be okay. I'd find myself constantly thinking about those people who told me I was everything but good enough. Then I made a choice. To survive or be a victim. I want to survive. Nobody had the right to tell me what I am and what I would amount to. Nobody has that right. Nobody can do it to me or to you.

Deciding how to survive came slower. I decided that if it was being surrounded by negativity and hatred that hurt me the most, why would I want to carry the same emotions with me? I forgave them all. Every single person who ever bullied me. Including the "man" who abused me. They made me stronger and realize how tough I can be. More importantly I learned how I wanted to treat others. When the "man" who abused me got away with it all it started my love of public policy. All those years of being told I wasn't going to make it lead to me attending my dream college.

Please don't ever let anyone take away your worth. It is your worth, not theirs. Especially some lame guy who ghosts you or is too lazy to treat you right. I modeled and still never could get a date to prom, I still can't get a date period. My "love life" consists of men who say they are into me and then ghost me. Then, oddly enough, they all start dating someone a week later. These days, nobody hears this enough, "you deserve to be happy and you deserve to be treated like a king/queen". In my 19 years, I've learned that I'm worth what I say I am and I deserve what I say I deserve. People will always try to tear you apart, but that's not their place.