Married Off At 14: Misty Nesbitt's Inspirational Story of Survival, Trauma & Strength (Inspirational)

How does a girl married off at 14 years old survive trauma, abuse, poverty, and silence—and still find the strength to rebuild her life?

In this deeply emotional and powerful inspirational episode, Reginald D sits down with author, entrepreneur, and mother of six Misty Nesbitt. Misty shares her heartbreaking yet inspiring story of survival, resilience, healing, and transformation.

Misty opens up about growing up in trauma, being sent away as a child, surviving abuse, living in survival mode, and being married off at only 14 years old. Through raw honesty and incredible courage, she explains how she turned years of pain, silence, poverty, emotional trauma, and survival into strength, determination, and purpose.

This powerful conversation is filled with:

• Motivational and inspirational life lessons
• Inspirational stories about overcoming trauma
• Self-improvement and resilience principles
• Faith and motivation through adversity
• Breaking generational curses
• Healing from emotional pain
• Rebuilding identity after trauma
• Turning survival into strength
• Finding purpose after hardship

Misty also discusses her memoir, The Girl Who Kept Breathing, and explains how simply surviving another day became an act of courage and strength.

If you’ve ever struggled with trauma, emotional pain, toxic environments, self-worth, fear, or feeling trapped by your past, this motivational speech style conversation will inspire you to keep moving forward, believe in yourself, and understand that your story does not have to define your future.

Many people today are silently carrying childhood trauma, emotional wounds, abuse, rejection, fear, and painful experiences they’ve never fully healed from. Some people are surviving life—but not truly living it.

Misty Nesbitt’s story reminds you that trauma may shape you, but it does not have to destroy you. Through resilience, determination, self-belief, and relentless perseverance, she rebuilt her life while refusing to allow her past to define her future.

Gain:

• Powerful motivational and inspirational encouragement to overcome trauma, emotional pain, fear, and toxic environments

• Self-improvement and mindset lessons about resilience, healing, rebuilding identity, and breaking generational cycles

• An Inspirational story and inspirational principles that will help you move forward with strength, determination, and purpose

Press play now to hear this unforgettable motivational and inspirational story of survival, healing, strength, and the courage to break generational curses and rebuild your life.

Misty's Contact Info:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/author.misty.nesbitt

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormistynesbitt

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authormistynesbitt

Website to purchase her book, "The Girl Who Kept Breathing". https://www.authormistynesbitt.com

Transcript

Reginald D: Welcome to Real Talk With Reginald D.

I'm your host, Reginald D.

On today's episode, I have Misty Nesbitt. Misty is an author,

entrepreneur, and a mother of six who turned the childhood of silence and survival into a powerful story.

Welcome to the show, Misty.

Misty Nesbitt: Thank you so much for having me.

Reginald D: Absolutely. Thank you. So, Misty, can you tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what your childhood was like?

Misty Nesbitt: So I grew up in Texas,

and at the time I thought it was a normal childhood.

We thought we were poor, but I don't think we really were. I think they just had drug habits. My stepfather had a drug and alcohol habit.

You know, when I say it now, back in the 80s, he made 60 or $80,000.

So I don't think we were poor. I just think that they didn't prioritize us.

So I was there. I got sent away about 10 years old to a state home,

and I was there till 14.

And at 14, I came home and I was married three weeks later.

Reginald D: You said at 14 years old you were married off.

Misty Nesbitt: Yes.

Reginald D: And you lived through trauma, poverty, and systems that failed you. What was the moment you realized, I have to take my life back?

Misty Nesbitt: Well, I've always known that. So my first marriage was not great.

I've always known that I had to do something I wanted better for my kids.

So even though I didn't actually consciously know, hey,

I need to take my life back, I always knew my kids weren't going to have the life I had.

Reginald D: Right, exactly. So what was that experience like when you were married off at 14 years old? What did it feel like?

Misty Nesbitt: Well, originally, it felt like it was great. I was going to get to be an adult, do what I want. Nobody was my boss. I mean, you're 14. You don't really grasp the concept of it.

You don't really understand the magnitude of being a. A mom, a wife,

an adult.

Just saying,

do what I want. That was my boss.

Reginald D: Right,

Right. Yeah.

A lot of times we think about that when we teenagers growing up, like, man, I can't wait till I get older. I can be grown or act grown or whatever the case may be, till it's time to be grown.

It's like, wow.

Misty Nesbitt: What I know with my kids is they've all hit the ages, you know, like the ages I had a first kid or the age I was married off. I look at them and I think, gosh, who in their right mind thought even anybody was ready to be an adult at that age or a wife?

I mean, I look at my kids And I think how immature they are. I mean, I guess that's the point. But I don't even understand what in my mother's mind thought, oh, this is a great idea.

Reginald D: And the person you married, how old was he?

Misty Nesbitt: He was almost six years older than me.

Reginald D: So let me ask you this, Misty. What did survival look like for you in those early years, mentally and emotionally?

Misty Nesbitt: Well,

I tried to just be quiet, be unseen, be not noticed,

you know, because you didn't want them to see you.

You didn't want to be the source of their anger. What they. They took it out at. So I tried to hide in books, and I tried to just not be seen.

I was a people pleaser.

I always tried to do everything so they would be happy with me, so they would love me, so they'd like me try to be better than my brother.

Because my sister and I were not our stepdads. And then my mother and him had a son together.

So we were treated a whole lot different than our brother was.

Reginald D: Right.

Misty Nesbitt: We were always in trouble for everything he did. Always didn't matter what he did. And he'd purposely do things to get us in trouble.

Reginald D: Wow.

You know, and a lot of times, people don't understand.

I think we all have a habit of being this way.

It's called survival, actually. It's. It just depends on what it looks like to you. You know, if it's been out of the way. Standing out of the way is one thing.

If it's fighting is another thing. Whatever the case may be, we all go into the survival mode.

So now a lot of people survive,

Misty, but they don't heal.

When did you realize survival wasn't enough anymore?

Misty Nesbitt: It took me a very long time. And you don't realize that you're just living in survival mode. You're just trying to make it to one day into the next.

You don't say, look at your life. And most of the time, you don't even have the time because you're too busy surviving.

So it's not until you can actually relax and breathe and you're not living in what your body perceives as danger that you can actually take the time and say, hey, maybe there's something wrong with me.

Because each day, I mean, there was so many times in my life, in different phases of my life, that I.

I didn't have time to even worry about that I had little bitty kids depending on me that I had to make sure that they survived and that they weren't abused or traumatized or sexually Molested or neglected or there was no time for me.

So I'd say it was probably in my late 30s, early 40s.

Reginald D: So your memoir is called the Girl who Kept Breathing. What does that title mean to you on a personal level?

Misty Nesbitt: Well, a lot of times, the only thing I could do, the bravest thing I could do, was just to keep breathing and survive through another day.

So many times in my life, that was the thing I could do that day. That was the win.

Reginald D: What inspired you to finally tell your story, and why now?

Misty Nesbitt: Well, I don't think I started out to tell my story. I just started out to write it down so I could get it out and so I could heal from it and forget about it and stop letting it traumatized me, stop letting it control me or stop letting it have weight over my life.

And then I read it, and I was like, well, what I always thought was weakness, when I failed. All the times that I failed in my life, they were really things that I survived.

We bought a beach house, and it was a great place. It gives me peace and calm.

So last year, I decided to write it, write it all down so I could move to a different chapter in my life.

And when I went back and read it, I realized all the things that I thought I had failed at, where I thought I was ashamed of and people made me ashamed of,

I didn't have a reason to be because I survived those things.

That. That was strength.

Reginald D: Yes, absolutely. And that's the thing about life. It comes to a point in time where you got to face it, you know,

can't run from it. You know, you can carry it all you want to, but if you want to start healing, you got to face what you got going on within and things that's holding you back.

Misty Nesbitt: Yeah, well, I was always made to be ashamed of, you know,

our childhood. Like, we had control over it or things that were done to me. You know, even when I divorced my first husband,

people looked at me like I did something wrong. People say, oh, well, you agreed to it. Yeah, but I was 14. You don't know what you're agreeing to. You don't really say.

You don't have a clue what you're agreeing to.

And it was always held against me and, like,

it made me less than or something that I wasn't because I was married at 14.

Reginald D: Right. So let me ask you this, Misty. Was there a part of writing the book that was especially difficult for you?

Misty Nesbitt: This one? I don't think it was. I'm writing the second one because this one stops at 14. When I got married.

The one I'm right now, it really is. It triggers quite a bit triggering. And I think it's more because when I read the stuff that happens as a child, I am old enough to comprehend I didn't have control over that.

Now when you're looking at things you've done wrong and you're analyzing them, it's harder to put into words,

harder to tell the world, hey, I did this wrong.

Reginald D: Yes. So what do you hope someone who's silently struggling takes away after reading your story?

Misty Nesbitt: I hope that my story lets people know you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to come from perfect.

And there are only three things you need to succeed.

Will,

determination,

and the fight to keep going. That's it. You don't have to come for money. You don't have to have this big, fancy education.

You don't have to have any of that. You don't even have to have people in the background that love you. You can do it on yourself. As long as you love you.

That's all you need.

Got to believe in you. That's it. All you need to succeed.

Reginald D: And you said something that really is, I think, the key thing that people need to understand. That you don't have to be perfect.

Misty Nesbitt: Yeah.

Reginald D: You know, at all. And I think that's what holds people back. They think they're not perfect. So I can't pursue this dream. I can't do this because I'm not perfect. And I grew up a certain way and I got a certain background and things like that, but that's not it.

Like you said, you have to know you. You got to be determined within yourself to go after the things you desire for your life.

Misty Nesbitt: Yeah. I mean, I grew up in a trailer park, and people refer to us as trailer trash. But that's not what I am. That's just part of my story.

I can recreate my story as many times as I need to. I can recreate my life as many times as I need to. And it's okay.

Reginald D: Absolutely. So, mister, you talk about rebuilding identity. How do you even begin to figure out who you are? After trauma?

Misty Nesbitt: My opinion, the worst thing you can do is sit and analyze that. Just keep one foot in front of the other and go after the goal or the dream. Whatever your goal or dream is.

If it's wake up and not feel the pain, that's what you need to focus on. I think we put so much thought into,

oh, I can't do it. This Textbook said, you got to heal this way. And that was my problem. I was reading all this and talking to the therapist and they said, you're not healing well.

I was just not the way they thought I was.

And I think focusing on that word, healing, it really holds you back. You've got to do what feels good to you.

You've got to do what makes you happy. And eventually you get to a point when you can look and say, oh, yeah, that's done it. That's help. I mean,

I always thought something was wrong with me because I couldn't heal the way that they said I should.

Reginald D: And that's the thing about it, you know, you have to. Sometimes people have to do things their own way.

Misty Nesbitt: Yeah.

Reginald D: You know, because you may heal one way, I may heal another way at the end of the day, but we all have to heal.

But let me ask you this.

What does real healing look like in the raw, I mean, everyday version of it?

Misty Nesbitt: So. And I still have trauma that haunts me. I control things because anytime I feel like I'm not in control,

bad things happen to me. In my life experience,

anytime I was not in control, things happened to me.

So even when I just had my face surgery,

they did a mild sedation and I could not handle that because I knew I was conscious to know what was going on and I was in pain, but I was in an altered state.

It did not work well for me. It's everyday life. That trauma will still come back. You just have to know how to deal with it and learn how to cope with it.

So, I mean, I think it never actually goes away.

It just stops carrying weight over you. I mean, what I've been through is never leaving.

It's changed me to who I am now. The difference is,

can I deal with it where it's not deafening, it's not painful, it's not.

It's just a fact now. It's there. It's just a fact.

Doesn't carry any weight in my life anymore.

Reginald D: Yeah. And that's a good way to put it. And that's a good way to be. Basically receive it and didn't understand it.

A lot of people was like, I was traumatized and this, that the other, and it needs to go away. And like you said,

it doesn't.

You know, it's just that you're taking control over it. You move on with your life.

Misty Nesbitt: Trauma shapes you. One way or the other, it shapes you. And the question is, are you going to allow it to shape you for the good or for the bad.

Reginald D: Well put. Exactly. For someone listening who feels stuck in their past trauma, what. What's the first step forward?

Misty Nesbitt: Moving forward,

to stop looking at it and stop looking in the rearview mirror. Stop worrying about there, because you're not going back there, you're going forward.

So you got to worry about what's in front of you,

and you need to think about where you're going. Where do you want to go? Because so often we think that our path is our destination, but it's not.

It's not. We have a lot of bumps and curves,

but if we stop in the middle of there, we're never going to see what's out there waiting for us. We're never going to see at the end of that road.

And I'd look around sometimes and I think,

this is really my life.

Who would have thought?

I cannot believe this is my life. Sometimes I think I'm going to wake up and it's going to be, this is a dream.

Because, you know, for so long I felt like I didn't deserve this life. I didn't deserve this happiness.

I didn't deserve what I had.

And it had to be just a dream because I was told I was made think that, hey,

because of where you come from, you don't deserve this. You don't get this people like, you don't get this life.

Reginald D: And that's unfortunate that people think like that, because I was actually told that growing up myself, you know, that I didn't supposed to amount to anything because I was born out of wedlock, you know, and stuff like that.

So it's crazy. But, you know, I think people get what they go after,

for one thing. And then once you change in life sometimes, and then you get through things in life. I think God blesses you,

you know,

as you're steadfast in everyday things that you do and being a good person.

Misty Nesbitt: Well, for me, I have to have a goal. I have to work towards something. And I remodel properties,

and it helps me a lot to take something that's broken and fix it.

And maybe that's what was one of my fixes. I mean, I take the most horrible properties that people say, oh, you should tear that town and fix them.

And I accept the challenge. It keeps my mind busy, it keeps me occupied, and it also, you know, it makes me feel good. And I can take something and make that what was once ugly into something beautiful.

Reginald D: That's awesome. That's awesome. You come across to me as a fixer.

Misty Nesbitt: I have always been a fixer. I'm everybody's fixer.

You know, I think that's the way trauma shaped me because as a child I wanted to be the helpful one. So I stayed out of trouble.

I tried to always fix everybody's problems.

So.

Reginald D: Yeah. Yep. So you're a mother of six. How did your past shape the way you show up as a mother today?

Misty Nesbitt: Well, so just different ways because I have different sets of them. So I have the older four that are adults and then I have a 15 and 8 year old.

So I think for the older ones, they didn't get the version of me that I have now. They didn't get diversion that I had, but they, you know, I was working.

I worked a lot,

you know, 16 hours a day,

six, seven days a week. I had to support them.

I wasn't there for them like I am the little ones where I was there every night,

tuck them into bed.

But they have always had everything.

So I think I wanted to make sure that they never did without that they never lacked anything.

I mean, there was plenty of times that I'd call them on the telephone and read their bedtime stories while I was at work.

So the little ones get me all the time. My schedule is flexible because I work for myself now, so.

Reginald D: Right.

Misty Nesbitt: I think for the different sets of kids, they got me as a different person.

I'm a lot more laid back in my 40s than I was in my 20s.

And you know, also with age comes wisdom.

And one thing that you can say, if you do it right,

you're also a little more comfortable financially. So you're not so stressed in your 20s. You're broke.

Reginald D: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

Misty Nesbitt: So it's a different you when you're broke.

Reginald D: Yep. So what's one lesson you are intentional about teaching your children that you never

Misty Nesbitt: received that you can do anything you want.

And I hope that when I'm gone, my kids realize that all of this that I endured was so the rest of our generations didn't have to. We're going to change that.

We are going to make sure that never happens again in this family.

My kids, my grandkids, that they never have to experience what I did.

Drugs and alcohol.

Their vice is to hide what somebody else is trying to hide.

I mean, they're just something that is pain somebody else is trying to mask and people don't realize them. All you're doing is making life worse with hiding the pain.

I hope that my kids make sure my grandkids make sure this never happens in our generation again.

Reginald D: And it's Important, because I'll tell everybody, you know, everybody has something going on with their family, but it's got to be somewhere. Somebody has to break this generational curse.

Misty Nesbitt: Yeah.

Reginald D: So, Mr. Where does faith play a role in your journey of healing and rebuilding?

Misty Nesbitt: I don't know that it does. I know some people say that, but I think a lot of the times and with, you know, I try not to say a whole lot.

And even in my book, I try not to put it, all of it, in graphic detail. You know, my, my goal is not to traumatize people. There's many nights I laid there crying for somebody to help me.

Nobody ever did.

I prayed, please help me.

There was nobody that nothing ever did. And I don't know that I've ever put faith in there. Now I don't. I try to keep all of my opinions to myself.

We have our kids in a private Christian school because I want them to be their own people and I want them to make their own decisions. But for me, I don't think that it does got you.

Reginald D: So if someone listening right now feels trapped, broken, and like there's no way out, what would you say to them right now?

Misty Nesbitt: There is. You are it.

You are the way out. Nobody can save you,

nobody can fix you.

They can tell you everything. They give you all the tools, but nobody can do it but you.

You have to make that choice.

If you're in an alcohol or drug dependency, it's because you choose to be there.

If you're in an abusive relationship or marriage, it's because you choose to. There is a way out if you're willing to sacrifice and get out.

I mean, nothing comes easy. It's going to be hard,

it's going to be traumatic, but at the end it's going to be better.

Reginald D: Yeah. I think you, like you said, it's up to the individual at the end of the day.

Misty Nesbitt: Yeah.

Reginald D: You know, I mean, people can talk to you and they can tell you this, they could tell you that. But you got to be the one to make the move.

Misty Nesbitt: Yeah. I mean, people told me all my life, your mother was so terrible, why you should have gone over there.

Because I thought I needed her. She had me brainwashed that I couldn't survive without her.

Reginald D: Right. So you've turned your pain into purpose. What does purpose look like for you today?

Misty Nesbitt: I am building generational wealth. That is my purpose. So that way I can make sure that all of my generations ahead have education so that if they choose to have a better life, they have one.

They can. There's one there for everybody.

That's my purpose.

Reginald D: And what do you want people to remember about your story?

Misty Nesbitt: That it's not unique. My story is not unique.

Hundreds of thousands of children every day live my story. Same exact one.

For whatever reason, whether they were sex trafficked or married off, because parents didn't want to deal with them or because they were bought. Doesn't matter. Lots of it. The only difference is I survived.

I found a way out. That's it.

Reginald D: So, Mrs. I have what I call quick fire questions. Okay. There's not a right or wrong answer. I'm just going to throw them at.

Misty Nesbitt: Okay.

Reginald D: All right. You ready?

Misty Nesbitt: Yeah.

Reginald D: One word to describe your journey.

Misty Nesbitt: Strength.

Reginald D: Okay. Finish this healing. Is continuing something people misunderstand about trauma,

Misty Nesbitt: that it goes away?

Reginald D: What keeps you going on your hard days? My kids healing doesn't look like what people think it actually looks like. What?

Misty Nesbitt: Happiness.

Reginald D: Okay, finish this sentence. The cycle ends with me because I

Misty Nesbitt: won't allow it to continue.

Reginald D: Excellent. And if you could talk to your teenage self right now, what would you say?

Misty Nesbitt: Run as fast as you can.

I was a runner as a child.

I would run away a lot.

I think even when I was married, I ran.

It was a instinct and I would always get sucked back in. Maybe they're going to be better,

but I would definitely say tell.

Stop listening to them and believing that it's going to be worse wherever else they're going to put you. Until that was the biggest thing is children that are being abused at home.

They're brainwashed to think that this life is good but better than where going to have to go.

And that's not always the case. Sometimes it's worse where you're at.

Reginald D: Yeah.

Misty Nesbitt: We have a broken system and it should be a priority because there's so many children suffering in this world, in this country.

And we're arguing about things that don't matter.

Reginald D: Exactly.

Misty Nesbitt: Should be focused on our children.

Reginald D: Exactly. Because nobody else is if we don't. Right.

Misty Nesbitt: No.

No.

You see all these commercials about save these children in this country starving.

Nobody ever puts that on there about save our children in this country that are being abused.

Drugs is an epic that has taken over this country and it is destroying millions and millions of children.

Reginald D: Yes, it is. And it's a shame.

Misty Nesbitt: Yep. And I always say you always know when you're in the poor side of town. You know how liquor stores and cigarette stores everywhere.

Reginald D: Why?

Misty Nesbitt: It's because we as a society have generalized that it's okay, we can keep the poor poor.

Reginald D: It's all in the system.

Misty Nesbitt: It is.

Reginald D: It's all a setup.

Misty Nesbitt: Yeah. I mean, you get in trouble for a minor offense, you're on probation. That probation wheel keeps you on there because they put the fees and court costs and stuff so high you can never afford to get out because guess what?

You make nothing.

Reginald D: Exactly. So lastly, Misty, how can my listeners purchase your book or follow you on social media?

Misty Nesbitt: So I'm on social media on every platform, author Misty Nesbitt,

and my book is available everywhere online. You can purchase a book. It doesn't matter if it's Walmart or Books a Million or Amazon. Doesn't matter what country it's in either.

It's in every country.

And it's the Girl who Kept Breathing.

Reginald D: Okay,

there you have it. Misty Nesbitt. Misty, thank you so much for taking the time out to come on the show. I really enjoyed you and you got a lot of insight and you're a very strong woman.

Misty Nesbitt: Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Reginald D: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Thanks for listening to Real Talk With Reginald D. If you enjoy listening to Real Talk With Reginald D.

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