One young Kansas girl is living with a long history of physical, emotional, and repeated sexual abuse. She’s fighting addiction. She has a mother who sacrificed her body for financial purposes. She shares with me:

It’s made me strong as a person, everything that’s happened. I’d rather be strong than oblivious.

Her words painted for me a disturbing image of survival. And yet, her story doesn’t represent just one girl. This small-town Kansan represents girls everywhere. They yearn to make sense of their broken lives, attempting to rationalize their traumatic pasts as something to be grateful for.

To this I say, you are not broken; you’re just bent.

-AN Terry