Reading Changed My Life - Townsend Press

Reading Changed My Life! Three True Storiesteenage moms in downtown Racine. These younggirls’ babies, she knew, were at risk for a tough timein life. She hoped to reach their parents with hermessage.As she talked with this group of 16- and 17-yearoldmothers, Julia showed a side of herself that wasquite different than the gentle, motherly person sheis at the Center. She was direct, even fierce in hermessage, which could be boiled down to this:“Make your child proud to say, ‘That’s my mother.’ ”Julia shared her own experience as a singleteenage mother. She told of her own financial andemotional struggles. She spoke of the terrible oddsthat face teenage parents. But then she pointed toher four successful, educated children: a dentist, apolice officer, a businesswoman, and a soldier. Thechildren of young mothers can make it, she said—iftheir mothers make them their number-one priority.“You want the bottom line?” she said, raisingher voice like a revival preacher. “’Cause if you want88