Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Getty
Author’s note:
When I first set out to write The Elissas—the story of my childhood best friend Elissa’s time in the Troubled Teen Industry where she met two other young women, uncannily named Alyssa and Alissa, none of whom lived past 26—my main focus was on these three girls’ stories. I was eager to uncover what had happened in their adolescence that had led them to therapeutic boarding school, as well as what had occurred while they were in the industry’s care that had propelled them each to meet the same tragic fate. But in my research, a new nagging question began to present itself: what was it about the Troubled Teen Industry that so appealed to their parents?
What I discovered, and the passage below will illustrate, is that the purveyors of the Troubled Teen Industry are often master manipulators who prey on parents’ fears, vulnerability, and utter desperation to do right by their children—no matter the measure, or the price tag.