Meet Tesse Lynn
I didn't grow up knowing what healthy love looked like. I grew up learning how to perform for it.
As a kid, I would stand in front of the mirror changing outfits, trying to figure out which version of me would be enough that day. Not enough for me. I never thought about that. Enough for someone else.
I got pregnant at sixteen. My daughter was born with a heart defect. Eleven heart surgeries. A stroke at two weeks old. She didn't walk until she was seven. She's 36 today. She is my miracle.
At seventeen, I gave birth to twins. I made the decision to place them for adoption, and I made one demand I refused to bend on: they would stay together. I walked away knowing I did what was right, carrying a weight I didn't know how to put down.
I spent the next two decades in survival mode. I chose relationships that matched how little I valued myself. I stayed through abuse because it felt familiar. I lost my dad at 28 and buried that too. By 38, I hit a breaking point I almost didn't come back from.
That's where everything changed.
I got into therapy. I faced what I'd been avoiding for years. At 37, I got my GED. At 41, I started college. I began building a life I actually wanted instead of one I was just getting through.
I'm 52 now. I still do the work every day. I became a coach because I know what survival mode costs, and I know the way out. I walked it.
Featured in Women of Worth magazine for her work helping women rebuild after trauma.