Beverly Robinson A Style All Her Own BY LEAH BASHAW Looking at Beverly Robinson now, the word that comes to mind is “energetic.” She carries herself with confident energy – not because she has never faced challenges, but because she has faced many that could have easily taken her life. Beverly’s childhood was tumultuous. She is the youngest of five children. Her mother struggled with mental health issues, and vicious cycles of trauma took place in their home. Beverly remembers being removed from the home on multiple occasions, often ending up living with relatives or in foster care. “I wanted to be with my mom,” Beverly says. Both inside and outside the home, Beverly experienced sexual abuse. She remembers not feeling safe as she tried to adjust to living in different homes with different people. The school became an outlet for Beverly. No one at school knew of her troubles at home. She worked hard as a student and to fit in among her peers. Beverly remembers, with particular fondness, her fourth and sixthgrade teachers, as well as the school’s reading club, whose books provided an escape from her stressful home life. One of her favorite characters, Ramona Quimby, was created by a fellow Beverly: Beverly Cleary. While Beverly continued to be an incredible student, she says, she became promiscuous as she got older. In high school, she entered a relationship that mirrored the domestic violence she grew up with. Beverly became pregnant in her junior year, which made her personal life even more unstable. The Domestic violence just seemed normal to her. Throughout her pregnancy, and even after the birth of her son, Beverly stayed in school, for which she credits her mother. Leaving school was “never an option,” Beverly says. She proudly graduated high school on time, wanting a different future for herself and her son. After high school, she entered the workforce, often working in fast food, retail jobs, or jobs with young children. Beverly had a second child, a daughter, at 19 years old. At 23, Beverly moved from Toledo Ohio to Columbus Ohio for a fresh start and began working as an intervention aide for Columbus City Schools. She ran from the pain of her past but was unable to outrun domestic violence. She was 29 years old and in another violent and tumultuous relationship when she gave birth to her second daughter. When her baby girl was 3 months old, her partner nearly strangled her to death. Beverly describes this as a dark time when she lost nearly everything, even her love for fashion. She remained in the cycle of abuse with her partner and gave birth to her youngest son at 31. When he was 4 months old, Beverly started counseling in order to put the pieces of her broken life back together. In 2007, a friend from Beverly’s church was killed in a fight stemming from domestic violence. Beverly was supposed to be with her at the time and realizes she would have been caught in the crossfire. This tragic event fueled Beverly’s conviction that she needed to break the cycles of domestic violence that she and her children experienced. After being terminated from a social services position working with youth, Beverly worked ENVISIONPROVENSUCCESS.COM | 13
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