State Knows Best

At fifteen, Nicole Hayes was pregnant and living as a ward of the state. Decisions about her life, her body, and her child were made by others. She was told she was too young, too unstable, and unfit to parent. She was expected to comply.

This memoir pulls back the curtain on what happens when the system speaks for you and over you. It reveals the pressure, the assumptions, and the quiet coercion that shape the lives of young mothers in state care. Nicole shares what it felt like to be judge...