Emotional Abuse

The account of the mistreatment that Adeline Yen Mah suffered through during her childhood included many incidents of both emotional and physical abuse. However, though the physical acts were certainly brutalizing and even criminal, the violations that lingered the longest and did the most damage to her self-image was the demoralizing mental and emotional abuse that she was forced to live under. Most of this mistreatment was at the hands of her self-centered and cruel stepmother who the children called Niang.

Adeline was the perfect student. She was never absent or late and she more often than not earned the weekly best student award. She was eventually elected class president and always won the most year-end honors. But just a mention of any of her achievements would send Niang into a rage. Telling a young, vulnerable girl that the taller she gets the uglier she gets inflicts...