Regina Louise’s Someone Has Led This Child to Believe is a rich, engrossing account of one abandoned girl’s efforts to find her place in the world, people to love, and people to love her back. The book’s raw and honest portrayal of Regina’s traumatic experiences as a young African American girl in the US foster-care system and her fight, not only to survive, but to flourish, continues to inspire us and countless others almost a year after the memoir’s publication. Regina also communicates her message of perseverance in her role as a motivational speaker and trauma-informed trainer advocating on behalf of youth in foster care.
Her message will reach an even wider audience this Saturday, April 20, at 8 p.m. EST with the premiere of the Lifetime movie I Am Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story. Based on Someone Has Led This Child to Believe and Regina’s first memoir, Somebody’s Someone, the movie traces Regina’s navigation through thirty foster homes and psychiatric facilities and her relationship with Jeanne, her counselor and would-be adopter. The movie tells the story of Jeanne’s love and Regina’s triumph over a corrupt system designed to keep her down.
The movie pulls its timeline and story from Someone Has Led This Child to Believe and draws additional context from Somebody’s Someone. It retells the story we’ve known for years already here at Agate, and we are pleased to have published the book behind the movie.
In Regina’s own words, “the movie really is an adaptation of Someone Has Led this Child to Believe, and I feel like my story—the book and the movie—has a sense of timelessness to it that I believe is worth its weight in gold.”
For an intimate, inside look at Regina’s story, pick up a copy of Someone Has Led This Child to Believe, available everywhere books are sold.
Lifetime partnered with Promise House for the Promise to Care: An Unsheltered Experience event in Dallas, Texas, in early March. Business and community leaders were invited to spend a night at a bridge frequently used by the area’s homeless youth population to learn more about the issues they face and to see an exclusive screening of the movie. Regina was the keynote speaker.
Photo from Regina Louise / @therealreginalouise