Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Mays.
Hi Michelle, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I am a former foster who aged out of the system in Ohio. I am writing a book series called Dumpster Doll to help foster children, foster alumni, foster parents, and generally, anyone who has experienced sexual/physical abuse, drug-addicted parents, abandonment, bullying, and the true evil of this world.
My stories are very hard to read, and they were even harder to live, but they have helped many people and have changed legislation for the betterment of children like me. My stories are sadly like many children’s stories in this country today and there are so many of us out there that don’t talk about it, so society is very unaware of the life and struggle of a foster child.
I am quite successful now and have a great life. I have survived by being a chameleon my whole life not letting others know the horror that I came from. I just worked hard and kept my head down. It wasn’t until I began talking about who I really am that I found my purpose and the meaning behind why I had to endure such atrocities.
While writing the first book, 4 foster children who aged out in my immediate area, from people that I knew personally, committed suicide because they were so lost. This sparked the need to do more than just write my story. I want to help them avoid the pitfalls that I endured when I aged out. This is how FosterHub was born.
Over 22k foster children age out in this country per year, that’s over 50 kids per day. While we want to help all of those young adults, we need to start small and grow. We are starting in the Central Ohio area, more focused on Hocking and surrounding counties because of fewer resources and no program for independent living in Hocking/Ross/Vinton counties at all (they lost their funding).
There are so many nonprofits and programs in Ohio to help foster kids when they age out but many foster kids are unaware of these options. Instead of making the foster youth go to each place to sign up, our job will be to be the hub (the one place) they can go to for help to get enlisted in all of these resources as well as a place for life skills learning. We never want these kids to feel alone.
Additionally (once we have a building) we would like to have weekly adulting/life skills classes ranging from cooking/shopping on a budget, how to open bank accounts, doing your taxes, how to change your tire and oil in a car, interviewing skills, resume building, etc. Anything young adults currently have the ability to ask their parent’s advice, we want to be that ear for these young adults.
We are not simply in the business to help foster youth survive, we also want to help them thrive.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been the bumpiest of roads. I like to say though We have all walked the paths we walked for a reason. Those that walked the uneven and rocky road can balance on several different terrains.
My story begins when I was 4 years old, I was sexually abused by my uncle while my father was deployed in Japan. I tried to tell my mother but she was so inebriated all the time that she would not listen. After my parents divorced, my father tried to keep us but he was unsuccessful. We went to live with our mother who eventually was running from the law and abandoned us in Florida by locking us in a trailer and leaving. This was the beginning of our foster care journey. My first book in the Dumpster Doll series is an account of my life up until the age of 12. The second book, due to release December 16 is until the age of 18. The third book is the rest of the story. I often wondered why God let me go through all of this but once I began talking about it, I found out why.
By the time I was 12 I was:
1) Sexually abused
2) Hit by a drunk driver and died 9x in the emergency room
3) Doctors said I would never walk again or have kids because of how badly I was injured
4) My mother never came to visit the entire month I was in the hospital, that is in the medical report
5) Mother ran from the law and we lived in a station wagon until it broke down in Florida
6) Locked in a trailer and starved to near death with my siblings. I was 8 yrs old.
7) Beaten by neighborhood kids for looking different (my eyes were crossed from the accident)
8) Police were called one day and they took us and split us up to go to children’s homes
9) Reunited with my brothers in our first foster home in Brandon, FL,
10) Sent to another foster family in the country because the first one couldn’t handle my ADHD brother
11) This foster family (I found them when I was writing the book) fixed my eyes, put me in beauty pageants, and taught me how to be a kid.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have worked for Verizon for 20 years and am a data analyst in the finance department. I call this my adult job.
I am the owner of Karaoke Party Connection LLC – A DJ/karaoke business since 2008 and do many parties and weddings.
I am a 2x published author – Dumpster Doll: The Early Years & Dumpster Doll: Adolescence www.dumpsterdollbook.com
I am the Founder & CEO of FosterHub 501(c)(3) nonprofit – We assist foster children who are aging out to survive and thrive at www.fosterhub.com.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
There are many in the Smoky Mountains, picking blackberries, getting water from the creek, swimming in the river, Winning the beauty pageant after I had my crossed eyes fixed, Learning to walk again, with the nurse in the hospital,
People brought us food boxes when we were starving. So many memories are what I have held on to so that my hope in good over evil never fades no matter what is going on in life.
Pricing:
- Book 1 – $14.99 paperback
- Book 1 – $19.99 hardcover
- Book 1 – $14.69 audiobook
- Book 1 – $9.99 ebook
- Book 2 – $20 (presale begins Nov 25)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dumpsterdollbook.com
- Instagram: @Dumpster_Doll
- Facebook: Dumpster Doll
- Twitter: @Dumpster_Doll
- Youtube: Dumpster Doll
Image Credits
Regina Starkey and Honeysuckle Hills Photography
