Trigger Warning: This episode includes child physical and emotional abuse, domestic violence, self-harm, drug use, teen homelessness, parental mental illness, and strong language.

Liz's story doesn't start with a fact. It starts with a few different versions, all told by a mom who doesn't always tell the truth. By nine, her mom was gone. By 15, her mom told another woman she could keep Liz if she got to keep the car. By 16, Liz was out on her own with a black trash bag and a Lion King pillowcase.

She's my neighbor and my chosen family, and I thought I knew her story. I didn't know half of it. In this episode, Liz walks through a childhood shaped by abuse, a parent who made up whole lives, a dad she loved and lost and found again, and the friends who ended up raising her. She's blunt, she's funny, and she gives grace to people who probably haven't earned it.

This is a story about who gets to tell your story, and what happens when you finally take it back.

For The Hayters is a podcast that normalizes hard conversations. Listener discretion is advised.

Interview, narration, and editing by Becky Hayter, with post-production, scripting, and sound design by Emily Nadal.

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