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RISING ABOVE THE SCARS is the true account of Johnnetta McSwain’s triumphant life story.  Born to an alcoholic mother and an absent father, the odds were unceremoniously stacked against her even as she drew her first breath.  By the innocent age of five, she was viciously raped and incessantly battered by her three uncles while in the custody of her grandparents.

The all too real horror of Johnnetta’s formative years was not just her reality.  Her slightly older sister and male cousin were also made to bear ruthless physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.  As young, vulnerable children, they were bound, beaten, choked, threatened and forced to perform horrific sex acts by their uncles.  At the tender age of eight, when most little girls can enjoy carefree security within the sanctuary of their homes, Johnnetta had contracted syphilis in hers.

The constant ravaging of Johnnetta’s body and mind served as a daily reminder that she was not wanted and not loved. Never allowed the liberty to make the missteps that often characterize adolescence, she was forced to sit outside stripped bare in the cold elements of the winter night.  This was Johnnetta’s punishment for wetting the bed and resulted in a severe case of pneumonia. Read more »

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Johnnetta in the News

Rising above the scars: Author shares story of sexual abuse

Rome News-Tribune

The first thing people notice about Johnnetta McSwain is her smile. She greets people with a loud “Hey!” and a compliment.

But McSwain has a past that for years stayed a dark secret.

The award-winning speaker and author was brutally raped by three uncles as a small child. She was tied to a chair and tortured as she watched her sister and a male cousin be raped also.

“I wanted to be Wonder Woman,” she said. “I took one of my grandmother’s sheets, and I painted a WW in red paint, and I would spin round and round. I wanted to get in my invisible plane and get those men who hurt me. I would pretend…

Read more:RN-T.com – Rising above the scars Author shares story of sexual abuse

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SAVE our TEENS Initiative – Book Campaign

Sponsorship Level

Recently, I was contacted by an educator who shared with me a story that made national headlines news in January. The story exposed disturbing facts concerning teen girls at a high school in Memphis, TN.

As a survivor of severe childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, I lived a life of recklessness, and inactivity until age 30. I dropped out of high school at 17, had a baby at 19, and on welfare by age 20. This is personal for me. I am one of these girls and we have to help empower these young girls before we lose them. We can not afford to loose our young girls to poverty, the streets, high school drop-outs, drugs, promiscuity, mental disorders, suicide, fatherless children, STD’s, HIV/AIDS and death.

Our future is at stake. We must do something NOW! I will be traveling to Memphis with a team to speak directly to these girls in an effort to inspire them to begin to break the cycles in their community. It is my goal to help these young girls by attempting to touch each one personally with my story and providing them with an autographed copy of my book. It is my hope that my story will inspire them to bring about the dramatic change that is needed to break their cycles. Read more »

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Based on the Emmy Award-Winning Documentary

The Road Beyond Abuse

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Successful Book Release

The Book Release Was a Success! Thank You!

I want to thank each and everyone of you that supported me by coming to the book’s release and signing.  It was a pleasure seeing your face in the place. Thank you for sharing in my vision and mission to empower women to love, forgive, and heal. For those of you who have been with me from the start of this book to the end; thank you. This is truly a blessing and I couldnt have done this without God and all of you. If you dont have a copy of this book, you are not doing yourself justice. This book will empower you, heal you, confront you, reveal you, shake you, shame you, save you and EMPOWER YOU. Buy one, buy two….just Do YOU!  Thank all of you who purchased a book(s). May God Bless you and I love you.

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