An 18-year-old girl has decided to start a new life, one without her parents, but she quickly found out that this might not be possible.
Alecia Faith Pennington left her childhood home with the help of her parent’s but realizes that she has no way to confirm her identity and who she is. According to the 18 year old she was born on Nov. 26, 1995, but she does not have any access to prove her identity to the United States government.
In an attempt to start a new life, the young girl is seeking any assistance she can in uncovering her personal records, and has launched a campaign on Youtube and Facebook where she calls her campaign, “Help Me Prove It.”
On the websites she claims that her parents never filled out a birth certificate for her and that she currently does not have a social security number. As a child she was homeschooled, so there are no school records, making her pretty much inexistent to the rest of the world.
“This leaves me with nothing to prove my identity or citizenship. I am now 19 years old and I’m unable to get a driver’s license, get a job, go to college, get on a plane, get a bank account, or vote” Alecia explains in her video.
Her parents, James and Lisa Pennington, are choosing not to help the now 19 year old, and have stated that they are shocked that their daughter has done this.
Her mother wrote a blog post, in which she entitled, “The Hardest Post I ever Wrote,” where she stated, “On Wednesday, September 24th my life was changed forever. My 18 year old daughter left home. She gave us no warning, no signs that it was coming. She didn’t try to talk to us about it or work with us. She, with the help of my parents, just left. And with her she took pieces of my heart that had been torn to shreds.”
Lisa, then responded to her daughter’s video by making one of her own where she claims, “To our knowledge there was a birth certificate filed, the midwives told us you have to file a birth certificate and as far as we know there was one filed. We do not know what information was put on it and we do not have any copies of that. We are unaware of what was filed when she was born but we have no interest in holding anything back from her and we know you can get a delayed birth certificate which would be a great option for her . . . We want every opportunity for her, we have offered over and over to help her and she has not responded or accepted that help. So whatever she needs now, we are happy to do, whatever we need to sign, we are happy to sign and let her move on with her life.”
Alecia believes that her best option is to find a lawyer who will represent her pro bono, considering she does not have the means to afford one on her own.
Photo By: The Daily Beast
