About Glow
For as long as I can remember, I could feel people's despair and wanted to find out where it came from. So, as a teenager, I began to research it. I interviewed as many teenagers as I could, looking for answers, and found its source. I realized that I was hearing different versions of the same story: child abuse. And everyone, myself included, was suffering in living hell because of it.
But knowing the cause of despair was only half of it; I wanted to solve it. The next step was to look for solutions.
That opportunity presented itself when I became a parent myself almost exactly 10 years to the day after I began my research. And for the next 30 years after that, I tried different approaches.
One idea I had was to see if despair could be reversed. During that time, I started my own clothing label and immediately started a free fashion design program for at-risk teens and young adults. I taught them how to start their own clothing brands and launched their labels at my store. When I talked with the young artists, I heard the same backstories of child abuse all over again.
I decided to see if I could help them get rid of their despair. The good news was that I was able to spark their potential. The bad news was that it was only temporary. I couldn’t erase their memories. Their trauma was embedded inside their subconscious. I came to the conclusion that once despair has been developed, it is very difficult to undo. It’s better not to develop despair in the first place.
At the same time, for over 13 years, my husband and I managed youth athletic programs and taught nearly a thousand athletes confidence, strength, perseverance, and pride. This time, I had access to parents, so I decided to research how parents treated their children.
While most parents were supportive, some were not. I could immediately tell which kids were being mistreated and who weren’t. I witnessed some parents developing their children’s despair in real time. I saw the very same parental mistakes that all of the teenagers and young adults in living hell told me about. I knew what those children would be up against. Their parents were repeating the cycle of abuse with their children.