We received many great nominations, but one e-mail in particular caught our attention.
It came from a caring mother who wants nothing more than to give her daughter the chance to discover just how beautiful she really is.
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In an e-mail to Studio 5, Denell Miles wrote:
Hello Studio 5!
What a wonderful opportunity for a young teen! My daughter Krista is 17 years old. She will graduate from High School this year—a beautiful young woman that we adopted at age 5. She was severely abused in all ways that you know about. Her mother is a cocaine addict, and Krista was born addicted to the drug, She knows her mother. We have an open adoption, and Mom still chooses Drugs over Krista. Can you imagine what that has done to her self-esteem? Every loss, every failure is Krista’s fault, because she is just not good enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough and she pushes people away to avoid the pain.
Krista hides her sadness through working hard and being adult like. Krista is a bright student. She attends SLICK, where she is enrolled in a nurse aide class; Krista wants to be a nurse.
Krista pays for her own car, her cell phone, and her braces. She works so hard that she forgets to be a teenager! She does not have to deal with the insecurities. Krista thinks she is ugly.
During her 3 ½ years in High School she has attended #1 freshman and #1 junior dance. Boys do not come over. Krista as a few girl friends; the rest she pushes away to avoid being hurt.
Krista has two adopted, developmentally delayed adult brothers. They function at about a 10-year old level. She helps take care of them by driving them to work, the doctor, the movie. Krista fills out forms for them, writes checks and pays bills for them and loves them. She just needs to love herself too!
Please consider her for your program. What a wonderful graduation gift it would be. To start her new life with a new attitude!
Denell Miles
(Mom, of course!)
Krista was surprised to learn her mother had nominated her; she was even more surprised to learn she won!
“She started explaining, obviously you get a makeover,” Krista remembers. “I said, OK I can live with that. Then you get these classes for confidence. I can live with that. Then you have to be in front of the camera-OK I can’t live with that,” she laughed.
Though she wasn’t completely “camera comfortable,” Krista opened her home and her heart and shared with us her hopes.
“I would like to have more confidence because I understand confidence makes you look better inside and out,” Krista explains. “I would like to be able to stand up to people, when I disagree with what they are saying. To not have to feel like I have to follow the crowd. I would like to trust people and feel more open with people.”
Krista’s confidence was shaken, at a young age. She spent her first few years, in and out of foster care and at only six years old, said good-bye to her birth mother.
“Even after I was born, my mom went back to the drugs,” Krista said. “I ended up not being her daughter because she chose things over me. I thought in the back of my head, the imprint on me, was I wasn’t good enough. That she chose that over me.”
It was a violation of trust that stayed with Krista, affecting all aspects of her life.
“I didn’t feel comfortable and I didn’t feel perfect enough. I didn’t feel pretty enough, I didn’t feel smart enough, anything enough for people,” Krista explains.
“I want to be happy with myself,” she confides. “On and off I am happy with myself, but I want there to be a constant: if I’m overweight, if I’m not dressed perfectly, if I’m having an off day, I still want to be able to be happy with me. To love me.”
This morning on Studio 5, Krista met her “confidence coach” Amber Evans. Amber is the New Faces Director at the McCarty Talent Agency and is currently writing a book on inner beauty.
Over the next four weeks, Amber will work to help Krista develop that true inner confidence. In addition to a head-to-toe style makeover, Krista will receive one-on-one personal coaching, an opportunity she describes as “unbelievable.”
“If I can truly find it in myself to be comfortable and to be honest with other people and help other people feel comfortable with themselves, I would feel so happy.”
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Krista will reveal her new style and attitude on Tuesday, January 29th.
Join us then for the reveal!
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