Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice

Giuffre reflects on her reasons for being sent to Growing Together. Her mother, Lynn, insisted that she go there because she thought Giuffre needed reform. At first, Giuffre tried to take advantage of the program and its therapy sessions. She opened up about Lynn’s addiction to alcohol, anger, and aggression. She discovered a love for journaling, too. However, Growing Together soon proved more abusive than her life at home. The staff were violent toward the teens and pitted them against each other. The counselors took advantage of their vulnerability, even mocking Giuffre’s journals. Giuffre ran away, convinced that no one cared about her pain.

Giuffre describes her family. Her father, Sky, grew up in Sacramento with his siblings and father. Her mother, Lynn, primarily grew up with her maternal grandmother and often felt abandoned by her own mother, Shelley.

Giuffre lived in California with her parents and half-brother, Danny. She was born “Virginia Lee Roberts” but always went by “Jenna.” When she was young, the family relocated to Loxahatchee, Florida—horse country. Her younger brother, Sky “Skydy” Rocket Roberts, was born when she was five. They were close throughout their childhoods. The family had a piece of property with a pond and space for horses. Giuffre was a self-proclaimed tomboy who loved Charlotte’s Web and all animals, particularly horses. Sky bought Giuffre her own horse, Alice, when she was six. She always felt safe and happy when she was with Alice.

Giuffre describes her love for horses, remarking on their simultaneous strength and vulnerability. Over time, she would come to share “even more in common” with horses, particularly their wariness and “need to escape” (29).

Giuffre describes the subtle changes in her family life that preceded her father’s sexual abuse. Sky started spearheading bath and bedtime, touching Giuffre inappropriately. Meanwhile, Lynn pulled away from Giuffre. Then Sky started bringing his friend Forrest around. Forrest molested Giuffre, too, and she would later discover that Forrest was also abusing his daughter, Sheila.

Giuffre came to rely on music to survive. She was perpetually confused by what was happening and unsure how to cope with Sky and Forrest’s abuse. She also relied on Alice. She suspects that Lynn knew what was going on because she remembers her bedroom door creeping open when Sky was molesting her some nights. Regardless, Lynn became increasingly violent toward Giuffre. The abuse went on for years, during which time Giuffre started experimenting with boys. She was simultaneously disgusted and fascinated by her body. More than anything, however, she longed for someone to see her worth.

Giuffre reflects on her relationship with Lynn. There were times when the old version of her mother would emerge. One night, she was at a friend’s house for a sleepover; uncomfortable with the other girls, she wandered into their barn and discovered a neglected horse wading in its own excrement. She called Lynn, who arrived with a trailer and helped her rescue the animal.

Around this time, Giuffre began working at Vinceremos Therapeutic Riding Center. Ruth, the woman who owned it, treated Giuffre kindly. Giuffre also fell in love with a horse named Millie and learned about empathy from spending time at the center.

Giuffre remembers being 11. Lynn was furious when Giuffre got her period and didn’t help her understand menstruation. Lynn also definitively found out about Sky and Forrest’s abuse but turned even more against Giuffre. Her parents sent her to live with her aunt Carol. When she returned from her aunt’s, she was horrified to discover that her parents had sold Alice. She was devastated.

Sky’s abuse temporarily stopped. Then, one day, Sky forced an encounter between Giuffre and Forrest, during which Forrest demanded that Giuffre beg God to forgive her for her “sins.” Giuffre became embittered and angry and started to rebel.

Giuffre interrupts her narration, acknowledging the difficulty of recounting and reading her memories. As a reprieve for herself and the reader, she shares an anecdote about a family dinner with Robbie and her children. She then returns to her adolescent memories. She recalls befriending a boy named Tony Figueroa. Although the relationship was “colored by [Giuffre’s] desperation” (52), Tony helped Giuffre survive. At 14, he was the first person Giuffre had sex with voluntarily.

Giuffre returns to her memories of Eppinger and Perfect 10. Eppinger wasn’t violent with her from the start, but he became increasingly aggressive over time. Giuffre was desperate to escape him but didn’t know a different way of life. Finally, Eppinger sent her to work on a horse ranch because the cops were on to him. The horses gave her hope.

Six months after Eppinger first began exploiting Giuffre, he gave her to a friend in Fort Lauderdale. The man made her work at a seedy nightclub. When the FBI got involved, Giuffre’s parents got involved and sent her back to Growing Together. She temporarily returned home; the best part was seeing Skydy again.

Giuffre reflects on her adolescence—the helplessness she felt and the choices she made. She became involved with a friend’s brother, named Michael. He proposed to her when she was 16; she didn’t accept, but she didn’t leave him. They were temporarily unhoused and had to live in her parents’ trailer. Then she worked at a pet store and tried to save money. Desperate, she was thrilled when Sky got her a job at Mar-a-Lago, where he worked maintenance.

Giuffre recalls the start of her time at Mar-a-Lago, where she worked in the spa for a low wage. One day, a car pulled up alongside her, and Ghislaine Maxwell emerged, declaring to her driver, Juan Alessi, that Giuffre was just the sort of girl she needed. The elite and charming Maxwell made Giuffre feel special.