From the System to My Story: How The Girl Speaks Has Grown

When I first began The Girl Speaks, it was never about me.
It was about a system.
About the quiet, hidden battles so many families face behind closed doors and courtroom walls.
I wanted to shine a light on what is so often kept in the shadows , not by shouting, but by speaking softly enough that people leaned in to listen.

I shared quotes. I shared truths. I spoke for the silenced.
And then, somewhere along the way, life caught up with my words.

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When the System Becomes Your Story

I didn’t plan for my own life to become part of this platform.
But the reality is, the system I have been speaking about is not just “out there.”
It is here.
It is in my own living room. It is in my own emails. It is in the quiet moments when I realise my life has become the example I never wanted it to be.

Suddenly, The Girl Speaks wasn’t just about advocacy from a distance.
It became about showing the system in real time, as it moves, as it decides, as it changes the shape of an ordinary day.

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Why I Chose to Keep Sharing

Part of me worried you might lose interest. That if I spoke too much about my own journey, it would seem selfish.
But then I realised: this is the reality so many face.
If I hide my story, I also hide the truth of what the system does to people , not in theory, but in flesh and blood, in family ties, in everyday life.

This means you’ll see more of my children’s stories as time goes on, not to expose them, but to show the human threads behind the files and forms. Every detail will be shared with care, protecting their dignity and privacy, while still making visible the reality they are living through.

You’ll hear more of my own history, even the parts I’m not proud of, because understanding the path means looking at every step. I won’t tell my story for shock or sympathy , I’ll tell it to give context, to show the reasons behind what happened, even when those reasons are flawed or unfair.

Some of the “reasons” given for what has happened in my life are valid. Some are not. But even the ones that are not still shape how the system treats you, and that truth deserves to be seen.

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What Will Always Remain

The quotes will stay.
The motivation will stay.
The wider truths about social services, family courts, and systemic failings will stay.
But alongside them, you will also see the path I am walking now, the meetings, the hearings, the waiting, the small victories and quiet heartbreaks, because they are part of the bigger picture I have been painting all along.

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An Invitation

So this is where we are:
The Girl Speaks began as a voice for the silenced.
Now it is also the voice of one living through what she has been speaking about.

If you are here for the quotes, you will still find them.
If you are here for the truths, they will not go away.
But if you choose to walk with me, you will also see the system unfold through my eyes, in real time — because that is the only way to show the whole story.

Thank you for listening, for caring, and for staying.
The road ahead may be quiet, but it will not be silent.