Warrior/Survivor Angie Conn

Angie is a survivor, speaker, writer, educator, wife, and momma. She is a recent graduate of the Rebecca Bender Initiative online mentoring program Elevate and is currently taking the Advanced Elevate Business Course. She hopes to become more involved in the movement by becoming a certified life-coach/personal trainer where she can help women suffering with PTSD feel more empowered and connected to their bodies.

She has learned over the course of her life and working with other women that too many women feel alone, ashamed, and afraid. "My heart is to dare to make a difference in the lives of others through sharing my experiences, pain, and hurt. I want others to understand that none of your pain is wasted pain."

Angie grew up in a small town in WV. At the age of fourteen she was raped by a school classmate. That event spiraled her into the darkness of drugs, alcohol, and abusive relationships. At 15 after running away from home she experienced another rape by a stranger after her boyfriend took her to a party. She set out to run as far away from the pain as she could. After hitchhiking from WV to California she found herself in the middle of what years later she realized was sex trafficking.  The following 10 years of her life was filled with violence, drugs, and darkness. Today she uses the experiences to shine a light into the world of human trafficking. No one should have to walk alone. For years I stuffed the pain of my past away. I locked it up tight and prayed noone would ever find out what I had done or where I came from. The problem with that is it festers just below the surface like a storm threatening  to destroy everything in its path. 

"Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you." -Sartre