I started Freedom Fleur after realizing that I could use the pain of my childhood rape to help other women walk in freedom and realize their own dreams.

I knew that abuse had taken something from me: freedom, confidence, and power. I wanted that back. I never lost my childhood dreams of starting a clothing brand one day. But I did not know how to realize these dreams. It made so much sense to me that, as I received therapy and did research on starting a business, women who had been disadvantaged by poverty or abuse would often be inspired and reach out to me for resources.

We initially started Freedom Fleur as a nonprofit focusing our efforts on support groups for these women. Over time I realized that as women shared their stories the shame started to break. In a supportive community, these women were thriving visionaries. I traveled to India and met a woman who had been rescued from sex trafficking and another woman who owned a Sari shop. I realized that the women who were out of an abusive situation needed therapeutic care and an opportunity to upskill, reskill or start a business. The woman in the Sari shop was an entrepreneur who was thriving in her context. She had employees in her small shop. After that trip, I knew that our next step was to form a for-profit and do work to get tangible resources into women's hands.

Women needed a chance to make a future for themselves and their families in a dignified way. I started Freedom Fleur because I believe in the power of women to change their world and invest in the world