Stories from the Hood

I am a 16-year-old Black (African American) and Jamaican female who has lived in many homes after being taken away from my mother by the Department of Children and Families (DCF), in the State of Connecticut. I am living a double life and the life my friends think I am living is not my reality. At this young age I appear to have it all together, but the reality is I have a hard life that I have protected all of these years by silence.