Me singing at the base of the Cristo statue with a bunch of other cult kids, in Rio de Janeiro where I grew up.
Me at 12 years old in The Children of God cult, singing at the base of the Cristo statue with a bunch of other cult kids in Rio de Janeiro where I grew up.
In my TikTok account, I talk all about my memories of growing up in The Children of God Cult. I talk about how I was labor trafficked (like in the photo above), the insane cult practices, and my experiences growing up in the leadership inner circle as a child celebrity, known in the cult as Mary Dear.
Because of my outspoken views on cults, child trafficking, sexuality, men, women’s rights and more, many people have come to me with their concerns and well wishes, telling me that the recent reports in the news with more Epstein file leaks, more stories of child abuse and trafficking, have been deeply distressing to them.
I thank all of those who have checked in on me during this time to ask how I am I doing mentally, because many people are struggling right now and feeling overwhelmed with all this news. Many are just now coming to terms that their favorite celebrity or politician, may be, in fact, a child abuser.
And while yes, it’s understandable for people to feel overwhelmed, angry, and disheartened about the recent developments, the short answer for me is, I’m doing just fine.
Why?
Well, one, because I’ve been working on healing my trauma and mental health since 2018. I’ve done more work on myself than 99% of the people I know. I know the ins and outs of trauma, of psychological warfare, manipulation, gaslighting, trafficking, cults, mind control, and more.
I consider myself fully healed in that yes, while I know healing is not linear where you reach a pinnacle of nirvana, I now have all the tools necessary to regulate my emotions and take care of myself when I am triggered or in a bad spot, in order to not perpetuate my trauma onto others.
And two, nothing in the news bothers me because, well, I don’t watch it. I have a very strict rule of what type of content I consume, and I don’t watch or read things that are meant to make my emotions run high to where I’m not thinking out of logic and reasoning, but on emotions.
Many people have this belief (exasperated by Social media) that it’s honorable and the right thing to do to get mad at everything going on in the world, to scream and yell about it on social media from the comfort of your house, to be mad at the “system” “the patriarchy” “the government”, etc. but not taking further action.
While yes, there is a time and a place for online activism, usually social media activism falls short cause what good are you doing in your life (except elevate your cortisol levels) and your community to constantly to get upset at the next trending tragedy, the next war, the next terrible event that the media shoves on us.
If you’ve ever studied Journalism (like I did in my 6 year college journey when I escaped the cult and proceeded to change my major 4 times), you will know that trauma sells. If the news was reporting majorly positive stories, less people would watch, which means less sponsors, which means less ads, which means less money.
Trauma sells. Disaster sells. That’s why we go through phases of marching around because of this terrible thing in the news, or sharing a bunch of terrible videos of things going on in other countries, and then, suddenly…poof. It’s like it never happened. Why? Because we need a new trauma to get addicted to, so the media just pushes the next one out for us (Remember KONY2012?)
In the past years I can name them all: Remember when people put flags on their profile for Ukraine? Then we were made about immigration. Now it’s Palestine, and we’re moving into Sudan…FYI, the war in Ukraine is still happening. Gaza, still happening. What isn’t happening is seeing a bunch of Ukraine flags everywhere. And less and less Palestine. But you best believe me we’ll start seeing Sudan soon.
Which leads me to my next and final point.
If you are feeling angry, overwhelmed, constantly mad at the big bad system that’s out to get you, put it all away. Turn it off, and unfollow.
Then, go volunteer in your own community. There are starving kids right down the street from you. There are kids who have immigrated here to escape wars, children who have lost parents and family members in horrific ways. There are kids who are recovering from car crashes, fires, abuse and more IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD .
You want to make a difference? It’s not sharing videos online and arguing with strangers on the internet.
Go volunteer at a hospital, orphanage, a burn unit, mental health facility, immigration center, and more. Go make a difference in your own community first. Then watch your life and mental health change, because now you are funneling that anger into something productive that is actually helping people.
This is the simple answers.
Things will ALWAYS be happening in the world, and you can’t do anything about it, and you don’t have control over it. What you do have control over, is how you react to these events, and what you do about it going forward.
Online activism is not activism. It’s trauma addiction. Many people who are out there sharing videos are sitting on their couch, not doing anything about it. I say this as a kid who grew up in a cult, yes, but the one thing we did do in the cult, was be of service to others.
I grew up going to orphanages, hospitals, retirement homes and favelas (def had no business being there, but I digress), to provide food, clothing, songs, and more to those less fortunate than me. This instilled in me a knowledge and desire to always be service in my community, so in my adult life, I volunteered all over Texas at women’s shelters and equine mental health facilities.
So yes my friends, it’s really as simple as that. Turn off the news, get out of your house, and go be of service to others.
Stop getting angry for no reason, shouting at strangers on the internet and making your life worse. Go out there do something about it.
That’s real change and activism.
