Mismothered is a raw and unflinching memoir of a childhood shaped by loss, instability, and a mother living with untreated mental illness. By the age of ten, as dozens of medically fragile foster children pass through the family home, Jennifer is thrust into adulthood—burdened with forced caregiving, relentless parentification, and the quiet heartbreak of watching siblings and foster children disappear or die.

From fleeting, sun-soaked moments of childhood in California to the relentless demands of caring for children with profound medical needs, Jennifer learns that love can be conditional, safety can disappear without warning, and survival often means silencing her own needs. Beneath it all grows a persistent sense of abandonment and unbelonging that follows her well into adulthood.

Years later, determined to understand the life she inherited, Jennifer begins unraveling long-buried family secrets that challenge everything she believed about herself. As hidden truths come to light, she begins to understand that the ache she carried for decades was shaped not only by the childhood she survived, but by the identity that had been hidden from her.

Mismothered is a powerful story of resilience, identity, and the universal search for belonging. It is a testament to the courage it takes not only to survive a fractured childhood, but to reclaim the story of who you are and choose the life you were always meant to live.