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‘You are more than enough,’ Austin woman wants you to know after surviving sex trafficking

Sophia Strother's company now hires women who went through the same hardships she survived.

AUSTIN, Texas — You are more than enough. That's what the woman you're about to meet wants you to know. This is her inspiring story, one that was born out of tragedy.

"It's still mind-boggling that I have a contract with a Fortune 500 company," explained Sophia Strother.

A year ago, she started a partnership with one of the world's most valuable companies – Amazon.

Her company, L2E is what's called a delivery service partner. They're in charge of the trucks and the drivers that get your orders from the warehouse, to your door.

Credit: Sophia Strother
An Austin woman is sharing her success story born out of tragedy.

Her story is a celebration of more than just a renewal of a contract, more than one of a successful CEO. It's the celebration of a life that rose above circumstance. 

"I feel like, you know, God allowed me to live for a reason," she said. "And this is the reason to speak my truth."

Her truth is hard to hear. 

"My abuse started when I was nine years old," she remembered. 

Credit: Sophia Strother
Sophia Strother at a young age.

Sophia said her father started sexually abusing her at that unimaginable age. Then, she said her mother started sex trafficking her. A rape at the age of 14 led to her first pregnancy.

Credit: Sophia Strother
Sophia Strother says her parents started abusing her at a young age.

"My son honestly, was the inspiration for me to want to live," she said.

So she picked up a phone, and asked for help. 

"And I said, 'I need to go. If I don't go, I'll end up being either dead or prostitute. I need to live for my son,'" she said. 

Her grandmother paid for a bus ticket to the East Coast to come live with her.

"And since then," she said, "I've been able to do some things that I never would have thought of."

Fast forward 25 years, and an already successful Sophia read about an Amazon small business partnership. She applied, and she got it. 

"I wanted to create an ecosystem where I could really pour into people emotionally through inspiring them, but also financially making an impact," she said. "Being able to offer jobs that are above the living wage. Forget a minimum wage, but the living wage, especially in Austin."

Sophia doesn't stand alone. She lifts as she climbs, offering jobs to women who are living through what she went through. 

"How do I build back those skills and that confidence?" she asked.

All while sharing her story, her lesson's learned. 

"You are more than enough," she said. "You are not your circumstance. Those are two different things. In whatever circumstance or whatever past that you have, [it] doesn't have to dictate your future. You can be the author of that. Here I am 30 years later from the start of that abuse, and I'm now an entrepreneur. This child that really didn't see a future for herself, now [being] able to embark on a partnership with Amazon that has allowed me to affect thousands of lives, and that is just remarkable and very humbling for me, and that's why I can't fail."

Sophia is the author of two books. She has her Master's degree and is now working on her doctorate. And the good news is, she says she is always hiring. 

Learn more about Strother by visiting her website.

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