A SUCCESSFUL YouTuber is speaking out about her decade-long battle with drug addiction that led to her giving birth to her first daughter in prison.
Mother-of-two Jessica Kent, from Chicago, had her first encounter with law enforcement at just nine years old after running away from home and spent her adolescence in and out of jail, selling and abusing drugs.
She said: “I started using drugs at 13 and my first drug was alcohol.
That eventually progressed into pills, pills progressed into heroin, heroin progressed to meth.” At the age of 23 she was sentenced to five years in prison for drug and gun convictions - however it wasn’t until she was a few weeks into her stretch that the prison nurse told her she was pregnant.
Jessica was taken straight back to jail after giving birth, but becoming a mother changed her life.
She said: “I realised that I needed to quit my lifestyle of selling drugs and using drugs the minute I saw my daughter’s face.” After a year of battling following her release, Jessica was able to get custody of her daughter and has since had a second daughter with partner Reece.
Clean since 2011, Jessica is now a successful YouTuber with over 56 million views and more than 500,000 subscribers - and a huge following on TikTok and Instagram.
She candidly shares her experiences of prison, addiction and motherhood with her audience around the world and has become a passionate prison reform activist and mental health advocate.
Jessica said.
“I can’t believe that I get to do something I love and share my story as a job.” Follow Jessica’s story, follow her at: https://www.youtube.com/c/JessicaKent https://www.tiktok.com/@jesken12?lang=en https://www.instagram.com/jesken12/?hl=en Follow Jessica’s friend Jen’s story at: https://www.youtube.com/c/JenCutting