I Have a Dream...You Have A Dream...Let's Dream Together!

In the Disney movie “Tangled” there's a great song number called “I've Got a Dream”. It's sung by “Gaul thugs” who at first look very scary and menacing, but who later reveal, by Rapunzel's question, that they all have dreams. They sing a merry song talking about how they all dream about happy and somewhat uncharacteristic fantasies for their monstrous appearances—like being a concert pianist, or becoming a mime, or a florist, or falling in love.

This song really speaks to me, because I am a person who still believes in dreams.  We are living in a cynical society today, one that almost assures people that you can't have what you really want.  That everyone settles for something.  That dreams only belong to the millionaires or the big bozos in power who pull the strings. 

But when I think of dreams, your dreams, my dreams, I still do think dreams come true.  In fact, I think that people wishing AGAINST your dreams, telling you that you're never going to make it, is all part of their plan to discourage people from reaching out and going after what they really dream about.  Maybe it's because they don't want you to succeed.  Or maybe they think just because they've given up on their dreams, everyone else should do the same thing.

Not me!  I have always been a supporter of my friends, family and acquaintances.  I feel that no matter what a person wants to do, if he or she has good motives, and thinks positively, that FANTASTIC things can happen in that person's life!  And I tell my friends that.  Believe in yourself first and then others will believe you too.

I know this to be true, because I am following my dream right now.  For many years, I dreamt about creating a live action comic book series.  Ever since I was a little girl, aside from being an actor, I wanted to be a superhero in the same spirit of Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter), Batman (Adam West) or El Chapulin Colorado (if you know or remember him)

I am seeing my dream happen, as I have produced the first two seasons of Justice Woman.  Not only is the series making noise online, but it has also earned me a couple of awards like an LA WEB FESTIVAL 2013 OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS AWARD and the H.O.L.A. 2013 EXCELLENCE IN MULTIMEDIA AWARD. It is gaining more and more recognition on the web and even offline, and I have many people to thank for this honor.

But the dream isn't finished yet.  We still need to cross that final lap, the one that puts us into the mainstream.  The show I produce is not just about me, but about a whole team of talented actors and crew members who work together to create a lively and relevant show.  It's an edgy show and there's really nothing else like it, on TV, the Internet or the movies. 

I do believe in my dreams, and know that Justice Woman is going to grow into something big.  Maybe bigger than anyone ever imagined.  But this can ONLY happen with your support.  I didn't create this show alone, but with the help of my supporters—people like you, who believe in the cause, and in the show.

So I want to THANK YOU for all of your support.  Amazing stuff is in store for our series in the coming months and I want you to feel like a part of it because you have inspired me to push forward and the least I can do is inspire you to do the same. 

Start living your dream because dreams can come true!

Let's Assemble Our Justice League Team by Keeping the Superhero Message Alive and Well!

Hello good citizen! While my real name is Vanessa Verduga, by night I am Justice Woman, committed to fighting injustice within the legal system and in contemporary society.

You know we live in a time of great contention. The United States we all know and love is under attack—not by terrorists or by an invading nation, but by its own people. Its own people who are politically, religiously and socially separated. The only thing more difficult than fixing the economy is finding common ground with our fellow man (and woman).

 
My message in my Internet crime-drama-comedy show called “Justice Woman” is what I would call a message of hope, of tolerance, and new age patriotism. We have progressed so much in the way of women's rights, racial equality, and gay and lesbian acceptance. We fight for what we believe in, and sometimes it works in a big way. We become stronger as a united nation, culturally and philosophically diverse, but still beaming with pride.

These are the values I teach in Justice Woman, a show that's appealing to all ages—kids, teens, and adults who love their social commentary with some subversive satire. I invite you to check us out at http://JusticeWoman.com and see what we are all about. 

The creative team and cast members were selected for the LA Web Series Festival 2013 with Vanessa Verduga (me) winning an award for Outstanding Lead Actress and we are already making noise on the independent scene. However, we need YOUR support to keep Justice Woman alive and fighting by:

Visiting our website at http://JusticeWoman.com

Watching & Subscribing at http://youtube.com/JusticeWomanSeries

Liking us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/JusticeWomanSeries

Following us on Twitter @JusticeWoman1 

Justice Woman embraces America, in all of its diversity. We are a melting pot of culture and life experience and we need to come together to make a positive change in society. Don't underestimate the arts. 

 We can help people spread a good message through comedy, drama and spandex suits.

Achievement vs. Success

Promoting "Justice Woman" has proven to be an arduous task.  After years spent bringing the series to fruition, you want people to recognize all the hard work, time, money, sweat and tears you've put into it and somehow applaud you for it. There are those who will do just that, and god bless them for they get where I'm coming from, and then there are those who will ignore your work or, worse, belittle it. It is the latter "snobs" who somehow placate our hearts and minds with self-judgment and self-doubt even though on the scale of comparison with the praises received they are the most minuscule and insignificant of the bunch. Yet they manage to reach into our core and unleash our inner fears and anxieties. Why? Because we allow the snobs to reign over us by placing success above achievement. 

What is Success? 

Success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose; the attainment of popularity or profit; the outcome of an undertaking, specified as achieving or failing to achieve its aims.  It's a concept that exists outside of ourselves and is measured by social standards. That is, it is a social concept that is ever-evolving and has nothing to do with our happiness.

Success is the value that others place on our actions. It is not a bad concept; we need some success and social acceptance to survive. The problem is that success is out of our control; it's arbitrary; it implies a constant comparison to others; it depends on many factors and it can be fleeting.

What is Achievement?
Achievement is a thing done successfully, typically by effort, courage, or skill. On the contrary, achievement is a concept that is related to our motivation, self-fulfillment and personal efficiency. It comes into existence when we improve a certain aspect of ourselves. Thereby, implying effort and learning - enjoying the journey more than the end result.

Therefore, the current worrying over success is exaggerated and not something we should be so concerned therewith.

Here is a TED talk by Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success:

"Not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we are truly the authors of our own ambitions because it's bad enough not getting what you want, but it's even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn't in fact what you wanted all along." -Alain de Botton

Hence, "achievement" as opposed to "success" should be the focus since it ensures a more secure journey to happiness.  After all, isn't the purpose of life to be happy?

"What is the purpose of life? I believe that the purpose of life is to be happy." -Dalai Lama

Every now and then as creative beings we need to be reminded of why it is that we do what we do. It's not for "success", as defined by others, but for "achievement", as defined within ourselves.

I love the journey that I'm on with "Justice Woman" and with my career as an Artist. I look back and realize that this is where I'm meant to be in the present.  Yes, there will be "snobs" along the journey, but they don't define our achievements and they shouldn't define our success.

"Let's probe away at our notions of success. Let's make sure our ideas of success are truly our own." -Alain de Botton

The Making of Justice Woman

Six years ago, Justice Woman was only a domain name.  Growing up a fan of Batman and Wonder Woman, I figured Justice Woman would be a cool name for my alter ego, a lawyer superhero.  At the time, I didn’t know what I was going to do with the domain name or  with the rest of my life.

I had recently graduated law school and had a judicial clerkship lined up, a position that most would feel lucky to have straight out of law school, but I was miserable.  I had given up on my dreams of being a performer to pursue a path of so-called “success.” My spirit was slowly dying.  I reneged on my clerkship, but being unemployed was not the best alternative so, I stuck it out as a lawyer.  Never one to take well to authority and having an entrepreneurial spirit, I sought to find my own way as a solo practitioner.  It was then that I experienced the genesis of Justice Woman.  Without divulging specifics, hanging a shingle was an eye opening experience as I got to see firsthand how our legal system and the people in charge of it can work for both good and bad under the guise of the law. I wasn’t limited to the experiences of others; I too endured my share of injustices and disappointments enough to want out of the practice of law and back into acting. 

While studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, I began writing short plays thanks to the encouragement of one of my acting teachers, Pamela Scott.  For some reason, dialogue just seemed to flow easily out of my head and onto the page (not sure what that says about me, but I think there’s a prescribed pill for that).  I quickly moved onto writing screenplays, mostly out of necessity; I needed an actor reel to showcase myself.  However, putting a reel together proved strenuous as I found myself hounding down directors to get copies of films I had performed in.  I figured with all the energy I was expending, I might as well write and film the story for Justice Woman, which had been percolating in the back of my head this whole time.

As I wrote JusticeWoman, a series of tumultuous events were happening throughout the world that fueled my desire to write not just on my behalf, but also on behalf of others who had suffered some form of injustice.  I began writing about the many unfair things that exist in our society pertaining to discrimination, homophobia, immigration, double standards, sexual hypocrisy, class power, political corruption and so forth.  Those became the issues that I wanted to tackle in JusticeWoman.  However, I took to heart Oscar Wilde’s saying that “if you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you” and put a humorist twist to my writing with remarkable results.

What had started out solely as a domain name gradually took the form of a short screenplay that grew to surpass the length of a feature film, which had to be parsed into a series.  A series that could go on into infinity because “[a]s long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other” –John Stuart Mill.  If history serves as a precedent, the battle for justice is ever ongoing.

As for directing, it became obvious that I needed to direct the series because as the writer I already had a vividly clear vision of how the story should unfold.  Besides, in the words of Woody Allen, “[t]his is not quantum physics.  If you’re the writer of the story, you know what you want the audience to see because you’ve written it.  It’s just common sense.  It’s just storytelling, and you tell it.”  However, directing and acting at the same time is challenging.  Therefore, I’ve been very fortunate to rely on the support of collaborating directors who have helped keep my vision of Justice Woman intact.

Six years later and I have found more than a purpose for a domain name in Justice Woman; I have found my purpose.  I am truly happy with the incredible work the cast and crew have done on the series and eagerly look forward to sharing JusticeWoman with everyone when it premieres October 4, 2012 online at http://www.JusticeWoman.com

MAY JUSTICE PREVAIL!!!

Why I Write And Produce My Own Work

Writing is something I had always wanted to do, but would often be intimidated by the beautifully well written and poetic books I'd read. I'd get so discouraged because I knew I could never write like that. However, I still attempted it in college and ended up with a writing teacher who shattered my confidence with C's. It was hurting my GPA so I gave up writing.

Writing Plays
Fast forward a few years and I found myself dabbling in writing again, thanks to my acting teacher at AADA and friend Pamela Scott who encouraged me to write (Pam is a wonderful playwright, member of the Actors Studio Playwriting Director’s Process Unit). This time, I was giving play-writing a go and fell truly in love with writing while taking classes with members of the LAByrinth Theatre Company, in particular, Stephen Adly Guirgis. What I got from Stephen is that you don't need to write fancy just be real. Real as in sharing who you are as a human being, baggage included - what keeps you up at night, what makes you happy, what conflicts are you struggling to resolve - a true sharing of you and your inner world. Infusing your dialogue with diverse characters to create the story that you want to tell, no matter how outrageous, and no one gets to grade you. So, I wrote plays with a lot more depth and colors...and then moved onto screenplays.

Writing Screenplays
I began writing screenplays out of necessity. You see, as actors we rely on reels to showcase our work so that we may, in turn, get more work to further our career. But how can we put together a reel if we don't get copies back from Directors? I did my fair share of student and indie short films in the hopes that I'll end up with good material for my reel. Some directors gave me copies and others simply failed to keep their end of the bargain. Then there was the issue of quality - some of the stuff I got back just wasn't usable. Frustrated, I decided to turn some of my short plays into screenplays so I can shoot something for myself. In the process, I discovered that screenplays came a lot faster and easier to me than plays because my mind functions like a film projector that plays out vivid images that tell a story.

I began researching American films and TV (I'm more of a foreign film and TV junkie) and went back on the film/TV auditioning track to feed my writing and that's when reality sunk in for me. What I had gathered from my research and auditioning is that despite being an intelligent polyglot Juris Doctor who has traveled and worked abroad, I may never get to portray a character like myself on screen because I'm an ethnically diverse woman, Latina to be exact. It's bad enough that some of the roles written for women can be very limiting and that roles for ethnically diverse actors are limited, but with the combination of the two I knew my chances were slim to none.

Realizing that the American entertainment industry has a long way to go before it gives up on the archaic and often times negative stereotypes it perpetuates, I decided to produce my own script: "Justice Woman".

Writing Justice Woman
When I first began writing Justice Woman a while back it was meant to showcase myself as an actor. As time progressed and I evolved as a writer, I started to find a voice that wasn't just about me, but about the many things that are unfair and disturbing in our society like racism, gender and age discrimination, homophobia, immigration, double standards, sexual hypocrisy, class power, political corruption and the list goes on. Those became the issues I wanted to tackle in Justice Woman. However, as my dear Oscar Wilde recommended: "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you", I decided to put a humorist twist to my writing and the results have been remarkable. I am truly happy with the incredible work the cast and crew have done up to date and I'm eager to share it with everyone soon.

About Justice Woman
Justice Woman is a web series that follows the story of Sofia Escala, an Assistant District Attorney, determined to fight injustices within the legal system and the fiasco she and her office mate Robert Galion get into as a result thereof.
It's campy with an engaging story line that involves Sofia and Robert bringing to light questionable practices in the prosecution of the city's cases, most notably the incarceration of an innocent migrant worker, Jesus Lopez.
Get ready for "Law and Order" to meet "Will and Grace" for some "Sex In The City" superhero style minus the super powers.

Starring: Vanessa Verduga (Me), Lee Kaplan, Luke Guldan, Mary Porter, Lino Del Core, Omar Gonzalez, Alison Ryan and many more.... 

My Piece of Advice/Suggestion
To anyone reading this is: 

Take control. If you see something you don't like then do something to change it. Put yourself in the driver's seat and tilt the balance even. You have a voice!

The Actor's Process

Every actor, over time and with experience, finds his/her own "process" for connecting to a character and story. It's not an easy feat to accomplish, but certainly an attainable one if the actor is willing to put in the time and effort required, both physical and emotional.

There's a huge difference with approaching acting as a child and then approaching it as an adult. As children we don't have the inhibitions adults have and so we're able to connect to our imagination and live in our fantasies carefree. But as we face the realities that come with growing older we get to a point where we leave our child behind in order to conform to the idea of how our older self should be and we become guarded. I call that my "loss of spirit" point.

Loss of Spirit
I remember it as experiencing a deep sense of loss and confusion. A loss of innocence and fear of not knowing who I was or who I was to become.  I found myself following the path others wanted me to follow, conforming to everyone's expectations and forgetting who I was at the core.

I returned to acting once I realized I was dead inside. During my first year at law school, I joined the thespian student association and did an Ayn Rand play that reawakened my inner child (I credit acting for this, not Ayn Rand for I am not a fan).  However, I stowed the experience in the back of my mind - after all, I was in law school to become a power house lawyer not an actor.  Needless to say the hollow feeling returned and no matter what I tried doing in law school and afterward I just wasn't happy until I gave acting a real go.

Although my inner child wanted to play again and felt an enormous bliss doing so, I realized that acting as an adult required a higher commitment than I was prepared to give. The commitment of opening myself up and allowing myself to relive experiences and feel emotions that I had learned to suppress for so long. That's when I went in search of my so-called "process."

You Must Know Yourself Before You Can Inhabit Another...

...Part Of Yourself.  I started my formal acting training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and, thereafter, continued with various teachers, most notable ones being Terry Schreiber and Harold Guskin. I've studied all the techniques I could possibly study - Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, Michael Chekhov, Larry Moss, Atlantic Theater, The Barrow Group just to name a few. I've taken what works for me and have discarded what doesn't from every single type of training. Nonetheless, at the core of every training lied the inescapable fact that I had to know myself in order to know how I'd act/react in the given circumstances as the character.

What was further tricky was that although I brought myself to the character, the character was not always me - at least not on the surface and so I needed to delve into what is called "character development." Again, you must know yourself in order to know when you have your work cut out for you with a particular character. However, once the character development was in place I came to realize that the character was always me just buried deeper within.  

In the words of Orson Welles:

Getting to know yourself is not easy and can be scary.  It does require bravery in order to go to places and/or revisit events you may not want to go to or you may have forgotten even existed (that's how powerful the mind is - it protects you by blocking certain things out). I must clarify, however, that I'm not referring to "affective memory" here.  Although, I am trained in method acting and do make use of the technique as needed I do not believe in using affective memory as a means to relive your life traumas on stage. In this sense I somewhat agree with David Mamet: "Nothing in the world is less interesting than an actor on the stage involved in his or her own emotions."  I would rectify this statement by adding "self" in front of involved.

The type of knowledge to be gained from the work required to know yourself is not meant to be traumatic, but rather healing or therapeutic. Therefore, I do believe it's something best done in private and/or in a safe environment. I must stress the importance of a safe environment because being overcome by emotions brought about from past events in an unsafe environment can be damaging and so I'm very grateful to teachers like Pamela Scott and Terry Schreiber who allowed me to go through those events safely in class.

As I previously brought up David Mamet, I wanted to further clarify that I am not in full agreement with his views on acting. As per David Mamet: "The actor is onstage to communicate the play to the audience. That's the beginning and the end of it" (from his book "True and False: Heresy and Common Sense For the Actor"). Moreover, he tells actors that they should forget about emotional preparation because "[t]he audience will teach you how to act." True, the audience will indeed teach you how to act, but...

We Are Vessels Holding Emotions For The Audience To Experience

As actors we must feel and in order to feel we must first unblock ourselves by coming to terms with certain things in our past and/or present - it's an ever evolving process.

"I don't think you learn how to act. You learn how to use your emotions and feelings." -Marion Cotillard

We absolutely need to do emotional preparation prior to going on stage if we are to become vessels for our audience. Not wanting to discredit Mamet, who's practical approach to acting has served me well in audition scenarios and who I think is a brilliant writer, I will admit that I would hate to be Mamet's protypical actor that serves solely to fulfill the objectives written in the play or script devoid of feelings and emotions. Those feelings and emotions are what provide that intangible experience that serves to inspire and move audiences. And I know that before I can give or communicate that experience to the audience I need to experience it myself.

"I wouldn't dream of working on something that didn't make my gut rumble and my heart want to explode." -Kate Winslet

I've been very fortunate to work on characters that have not only moved me, but have moved my audience. I know that I'm doing my job when I feel every pore in my body electrified - my entire body shakes and vibrates - it's as if thousands of ants were crawling all over my body - it is that electricity full of feelings and emotions that I transmit to my audience. That is the culmination of my process.

There is no right or wrong way of approaching this. As actors we need to continue exploring within ourselves who we are at our very core and make use of whatever techniques and tools best aid us.

Patsy Rodenburg - Why I Do Theater:

"No woman leaves an abusive relationship...she flees."

If She's Lucky.

The title of this post is a line from the play "Flowers: A Thorny Romance Story," which is playing at the Workshop Theater Main Stage as part of the Midtown International Theater Festival (for tickets go here: http://www.midtownfestival.org). I play the role of Marisol Hughes, a Fortune 500 executive who gave up her career to start a loving family and found herself stuck in an abusive marriage. The play reads like what my life could have been like had I stayed in an abusive relationship. I was lucky. As for Marisol...well, you'll have to see the play and find out - I highly recommend it.

1 in every 4 women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime

I never thought I, a smart-ass from the Bronx, would be a part of that statistic, but I am. I met him while bartending. He was friends with the owner of the bar where I used to work. He'd always stop by for a chat with his boys and a couple of beers. He seemed nice, calm, and sweet - an All American Ivy League graduate. He was the quiet type....

It's Always The Quiet Ones....
Who would've known that underneath the facade there would be a spiteful, angry, hateful person? I didn't. He put his best foot forward, won me over and everything was great at first. But his true colors gradually came through and I just couldn't, better yet, I didn't want to believe that he was such a dark and ugly individual.

It started with verbal abuse, but I didn't think much of it cause they were just words...so I thought. But those words were slowly breaking me down as my self-esteem diminished. Then things escalated to physical abuse, but, again, I didn't want to make much of it because it was just a push and a shove here and there. I didn't understand how he could go from building me up one minute to completely tearing me down the next. Intertwined with his apologies were the excuses that he couldn't control himself because he had never loved anyone this much and that I needed to develop tough skin since I was too weak and fragile, thus, he was doing it for my own good. Then he'd tell me that no one else would ever love me as much as he does. Was that sick? I didn't know at the time. All I knew was that the whole thing was so confusing and embarrassing that it was happening to me.

My acceptance into law school prompted him to talk about our future together. He had it all planned out - we'd get married and start a family as soon as I'd graduate from law school. While he spoke of marriage and children, in silence I'd be hoping and praying that this wasn't God's plan for me. Walking by jewelry stores was nauseating - he'd drag me in to look at rings and I'd walk right out telling him that I preferred to be surprised when the time comes. He also liked to talk about the irony of it all - you see, he had envisioned the future mother of his kids to be a tall blonde woman, the Stepford type, who would bear him blue eyed children to look like him. Bit much? I thought so. But why couldn't I leave him? Because I feared that maybe he was right - who else would love me with this much passion? It wasn't passion...it was a sickening obsession as he tried to take control of me.

Although the embarrassment kept me from telling anyone, keeping it inside was too burdensome. I had to tell someone and I did. I told a co-worker who had previously asked about a couple of bruises I had - I lied to her then, but came clean now. To unburden myself to her was relieving and empowering for a bit because I began to fight back. However, he wasn't one to back down and my fighting back just seemed fruitless and exhausting. I became numb to his fighting - he'd start and I'd completely space out as if he weren't even talking to me. I just wanted out of the relationship and resolved to move out as soon as law school began, but my decision was precipitated by a fight that topped all others.

The Last Straw
I came home late from work one night and found the coffee table completely smashed, things knocked over and holes in the wall. I thought maybe someone broke in, but that wasn't the case because he was sound asleep in the bedroom and the holes looked more like punches. It wasn't the first time he rammed his fists through the wall. I slept on the couch that night (but that wasn't unusual; I had started to feel repulsed by him).

The next morning, I found out that he had thrown a temper tantrum all by himself because the server hosting his business websites had crashed and lost all of his data. I designed those websites and maintained the databases for him (free of charge, of course, because it was my duty as his girlfriend - as he put it). That day he was leaving to visit his parents out of state for the weekend and wanted me to get everything up and running immediately. I was the general manager of a bar/restaurant and needed to open the establishment to let the staff in before brunch. He saw me getting ready for work and threw another tantrum because he couldn't believe how I wasn't working on his websites at that very instant. I told him that I'd work on his websites later. He gave me a whole speech about how he had priority and not some stupid job that I was planning to leave soon anyway. I told him that his sense of entitlement was starting to get on my nerves. He yanked the towel off my head, said "I don't fucking care" and then spit in my face.

I was sobbing uncontrollably, but continued to get ready for work. He freaked out and apologized profusely - he wouldn't let me out of the apartment until he was sure that I had forgiven him and that I would work on his websites that evening after work. I gave him the assurance he needed.

The Escape
That evening, he called demanding to know why the websites hadn't been up yet. I told him I was working on them and that they'd be up by the following day.  I lied.  I was packing up to move back to New York with the help of a very dear friend to whom I'm eternally grateful. I took all of my stuff and, inadvertently, took all the backup CDs I had made of the websites and databases with me. Oooopps!

I was long gone when he returned. He called me for months every single day leaving messages apologizing and begging that we speak. I had no desire to ever speak to him again until he called me from an unknown number on my birthday and surprised me. He asked to meet with me because he was a changed man and we owed it to ourselves to know for sure if the relationship was worth saving or not. I started to feel bad for him and agreed to meet, but when he called to confirm our meeting, I realized there was nothing worth saving in that relationship.

I Owed It To Myself
I owed myself the love, honor and respect that he (and I) had denied me while in that relationship. Many times, I think back and wonder why did I not speak up sooner or why didn't I call the cops on him? I had every right to do so and so does anybody experiencing or witnessing domestic abuse because we owe it to ourselves!

“No woman has to be a victim of physical abuse. Women have to feel like they are not alone.” -Salma Hayek

“This is not love. It is a crime, ... You can't look the other way just because you have not experienced domestic violence with your own flesh.” -Salma Hayek

For more information or to get help, please call:
THE NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE at 1-800-799-7233
THE NATIONAL SEXUAL ASSAULT HOTLINE at 1-800-656-4673
THE NATIONAL TEEN DATING ABUSE HOTLINE at 1-866-331-9474

"IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO EMPOWER YOURSELF!"