G-I-R-L-S-C-A-N-P-S-G-G-E-N-P-S-G-G-G-E-N-P-E-C-E-N-E-N-E-N-E-L-E-L-E-L-E-L-E-N I know. I mean, that's your Instagram handle.

That's how I have you in my frame. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so happy you're here.

I can't believe it. I'm so happy you're here. This worked out really quickly. I actually, I don't think I told you this,

but I had a listener to Girls Camp, send me one of your reels. Oh, really? And they were like, you have to interview Marissa. I reached out,

and now here we are. Oh, I had no idea. I thought you just happened to come upon it.

Stumble across it. No, it was from a listener. So shout out to that listener, wherever you are.

Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Yes. You have quite the story. Yeah.

So, Marissa, by way of introduction, you were adopted into a very

conservative LDS Utah family. So we're going to be talking about that. We're going to be

talking about your experience being raised in the church as a black woman, especially in Utah.

And now you are a professional model, which I find very interesting,

especially doing that in Utah, especially coming from the very conservative upbringing that

you came from. And then you've also been diagnosed with bipolar one. So we're going to talk

about how the mental health stuff kind of fits into this whole picture. Yeah, I'm excited to

share. Can't wait. Let's get into it.

The first thing I want to ask you is what it was like your upbringing. You've shared a little bit

with me that you were adopted into a very strict LDS family. So can you tell us what your upbringing was like? Yeah, so I was born in

Odessa, Texas, and I was adopted, and I was actually raised in Mesa, Arizona. So for the first 16 years

of my life, I was raised in Arizona and I loved it there.

I was adopted through LDS Family Services in 1998.

So this is the time period where adoption in different places are still kind of sketchy,

still kind of, you know, under the table or back door across the country and internationally as well.

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