Quotes from Stephanie Land

If we can at least make sure that our children are taken care of, that will ease the minds of their parents who are trying to work.

Public speaking is not something my mind and body are able to do easily. I sweat profusely with shaky hands to match a voice that sometimes cracks. I wake up in the middle of the night obsessing over what I said and if it sounded weird or if I shouldn't have said that.

There's a thing called a 'welfare cliff,' and what happens is you get up to a threshold - which is a very firm line - and if you jump over it, then you lose all of your benefits.

When I saw the letter of acceptance for Snap - the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, popularly known as food stamps - it was a moment of gratitude, and brief catharsis and relief. Still, I knew it wasn't a socially acceptable means to feed my family with. I saw the memes friends posted, chastising people on welfare.

This resounding cry of 'welfare to work' enrages me because something like 75% or 80% of people who are on government assistance are already working.

I believe in the right to choose. I have chosen to end a pregnancy before.

Dating means hope.

For me and other families struggling to make ends meet, paying for child care out of pocket is an impossible task.

I'd had boyfriends berate me for not having dinner on the table, calling me lazy for sitting around with the grout in the bathroom being dirty. My friends who are moms spoke of their husbands, it was a bit of the same, or they sometimes likened them to an additional child: someone who whined and couldn't accomplish simple tasks.

I am, by default, a healthy eater. I limit processed food, eat fresh ingredients, all of that.

As a parent you know you want to provide safe, healthy environments for your children.

Once it was clear that Donald Trump would be president instead of Hillary Clinton, I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to gather my children in bed with me and cling to them like we would if thunder and lightning were raging outside, with winds high enough that they power might go out. The world felt that precarious to me.

Most people don't see themselves as sitting on that bottom rung as a defense mechanism. The more they blame poor people for their poverty, the further they feel from being in the same place. Even the working poor who qualify for food, childcare and housing benefits don't see themselves as such.

I think there's a huge gap between no longer qualifying for benefits and being able to afford a life without benefits. When I went off government assistance - six months before I got the book deal - there were some months that were lean, I mean literally lean, like I lost a lot of weight. I could barely afford food.

As a mom raising two kids on my own, my life requires a certain kind of constant juggling that is hard to keep on track.

I didn't always handle the stress of raising my kids on little money well.

I graduated from college in 2014 and started freelance writing. I'd write anything that paid, including filling local events calendars for hourly rates.

I graduated with a bachelor's degree, $60,000 in debt, and due to have a baby in a month.

If you work a job outside of the hours a daycare that accepts government grants operates, if you are self-employed or you take classes not approved by federal daycare funding, you will have trouble finding ways around high child care costs.

I, for the most part, subsist on very little, high-quality, dense-in-nutrition food.

As a low-income worker, my take-home pay, at best, was about $200 a week.

I have what's known as a 'spirited' child. Mia has run me ragged since she knew how to walk. She'd run across soccer fields as a toddler, never once looking back. I have learned how to navigate her strong nature while nurturing it as well. I raised her to think for herself. I raised her to question.

Shortly after my first daughter was born in 2007, we had to move into a homeless shelter.

It was interesting to be in a position where I got to know people through cleaning their houses, but I became disenchanted.