Healing is the New Hustle: The Rise of a Woman Who Refused to Stay Broken

By Scarlet McKenzie  

There’s a version of me that didn’t survive.

She was the little girl whose innocence was stolen too young, kidnapped more than once, violated by those she should have been able to trust, and abandoned by systems built to protect. She was the woman who later survived domestic violence so insidious that it left no visible bruises—but carved deep scars in her nervous system, rewired her brain, and nearly erased her identity. She was the mother whose greatest act of love—protecting her child—was weaponized against her by a corrupted child welfare system.

That woman didn’t survive.

She transformed.

My mindset shift wasn’t a gentle awakening. It was violent and necessary—a death and resurrection. When Child Protective Services, under the influence of my abuser’s manipulations, tried to label me “unfit” because I dared to model, act, and speak out, I realized the truth: they weren’t interested in protecting my child. They were protecting a system built on silence, control, and compliance.

I stopped trying to prove my worth to broken institutions and began reclaiming my power through radical healing.

According to a 2023 study from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, abusers increasingly use CPS reports as a weapon—falsely accusing protective parents (often mothers) to maintain power and control after separation. In fact, nearly 33% of survivors reported being investigated by CPS due to vindictive reports made by their abuser. These weaponized interventions not only retraumatize the survivor but also interrupt parent-child bonds and create long-term emotional harm.

I experienced this firsthand.

I was punished for my strength. My healing journey, my career, my voice—everything that should’ve symbolized empowerment—was twisted to fit their narrative. But in their attempt to destroy me, they handed me every tool I needed to dismantle their playbook.

Healing became my rebellion.

I studied trauma. I learned how childhood abuse reshapes the amygdala and hippocampus, how hypervigilance becomes a survival state—not a flaw. I dove into somatic therapy, breathwork, and conscious reparenting. I began helping other women navigate their own healing journeys, not as a therapist, but as a sister, a guide, and a living, breathing example that rising is possible.

Now, I advocate, I mother fiercely, and I model not just for the camera—but for a new generation of women learning they don’t have to dim themselves to survive.

The “old me” hustled for survival. The “new me” heals as a form of hustle. And that healing has become my brand, my mission, and my message.

In modern entrepreneurship, healing work isn’t just personal—it’s revolutionary. We’re watching women redefine leadership by building businesses rooted in empathy, intuition, and transparency. The new hustle isn’t about burnout and grind culture—it’s about wholeness, integration, and refusing to carry trauma into the next generation.

Everything that tried to break me became my blueprint for freedom.

CPS couldn’t silence me.

The patriarchy couldn’t erase me.

My abuser couldn’t destroy me.

I rise not in spite of what I’ve endured, but because of it. And I bring other women with me.

This isn’t just my story. It’s a movement.

Connect With Scarlet

IG: ScarletMcKenzie

Photographers IG: AntonioJohnsonphotography