Insane Roots

An artist revisits her childhood spent with a con-artist mother who lived under many aliases and examines how she's come to terms with it.

Growing up, Tiffany Rochelle had no reason to believe her mother was not who she claimed to be, but that all changed when she was nine. She learned her mother had been living under a false identity since before she was born, and that the name her mother had used on her birth certificate wasn't real.

From that point, Tiffany's life was never the same. By the time she was twenty-five, her mother had used twenty-seven known aliases and had created just as many lives to go along with them.

As she got older and "found" herself in the world of art, Tiffany realized that even if she could have chosen her mother, she would have chosen no differently. Tiffany knew that she would not have achieved success as an artist were it not for her mother's insane roots.

Tiffany Rochelle's story shows how true the saying "You can't choose your family" is and why you should be grateful for them.