Alli Crews

I'm messy heartbroken. Allison Crews, long time editor of girlmom.com, teen mom extraordinaire, and revolutionary genius died early Saturday morning.

I remember when I first met Alli, when she came up to Oakland with her son to do a few readings with me. She'd written this story called "When I was Garbage" -- 17 years old and already she was this bad-ass advocate. Blew me away. And over the years blew me away even more. In the last few months she was getting more serious about book-writing and we were exchanging emails, info . . . An anthology with the working title "Original Shame: Illicit, Illegitimate and Ill-timed Pregnancies and the Women Who Survived Them" and focus on the deeply-infused shame that comes with so many pregnancies. Last month she said: "I want to focus on how the intersections of socially sanctioned shame and stigma, reproduction and reproductive trauma, the myriad factors influencing a woman's experiences and choices, and the context of the pregnancies can irreparably damage parts of a woman's psyche and personality. I'd write my introduction about the history of stigmatized and shameful pregnancy and immense importance of recognizing the stories so many women have to tell about these experiences. I'd like to particularly be sure to include stories from queer women, women of color, very very young women, women with disabilities, women who lived in maternity homes and relinquished their babies (or other women who were otherwise literally expelled from their families and communities because of a shameful pregnancy) and women who have had abortions."

From the thread at girl-mom:

we all can keep fighting her fight-- going back to school, leaving a shitty relationship, falling in love, starting a movement, being a kickass mama, or getting to know the young mama down the block.

The Girl-Mom moderators are collecting money to be used to help Alli's young family in this profoundly sad time. If you would like to contribute, you can send a donation via paypal to: girlmom@gmail.com

We love you, Alli.