Speak Loud

In this episode, I talk to author, speaker, and professional bodybuilder Jewels. Jewels wrote "The Making of a Woman: From the Inside Out" and is here to speak about childhood abuse, alcoholism, recovery and rediscovery. Jewels hopes she can reach people and show that ‘it’--whatever ‘it’ is--is not pretty, but is possible. Jewels describes her early life as the 'first stage,' one that she had to endure to evolve. The first Jewels was small, and according to her, scared. Suddenly one-in-five kids after her mother remarried, Jewels suffered abuse in the shadows. Her silence was her way of coping with the abuse, which went on for three years.At 14 she dropped out of school and left home. She had started drinking, drugs, and brought those bad habits into adulthood. Jewels was 'functioning with a 10-year-old's idea of what adults do.' She lacked guidance. But during this time, her mother was her rock as she was her cheerleader when Jewels was 'circling the drain,’ and handed