After 2 Foster Homes, Jordan Turpin Walked an Hour to New Job at Taco Bell 'in the Middle of the Night'

Jordan Turpinhas always done everything she could to survive.

In PEOPLE’s latest cover story, the courageous 21-year-old woman opens up exclusively about her life after she helped rescueherself and her 12 siblingsfrom extreme abuse in their parents' Perris, Calif., home that became known as the “House of Horrors.” (Their parents, David and Louise Turpin, were arrested in 2018 and pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts; they were sentenced to life in prison.)

“I was very traumatized. It’s beena very scary journey,” says Jordan, who, along with five of her siblings, recently filed lawsuits against Riverside County and a private foster care agency for the abuse they allegedly endured in foster care after leaving their parents' home.

In the complaints, they allege not only that their first foster family had a priorhistory of abusing children, but also that the organizations were aware of that history and failed to act even after the children asked for help. (The foster parents, Marcelino and Rosa Olguin, and their adult daughter Lennys Olguin, have beenarrested and charged with multiple countsof child abuse. All three have pleaded not guilty.)

After leaving her first foster home, Jordan was placed in another home but says she was kicked out while visiting her sister. She later discovered that documents filed in court erroneously stated she was in college and residing in her own apartment.

Jordan Turpin.Austin Hargrave

Bouncing between her siblings' homes and often going hungry, Jordan walked into a Taco Bell one day and asked for a job.

“Me and my siblings always used to sing a Taco Bell theme song we made up [when we were trapped],” she says. “It’s just always been special to us.”

Austin Hargrave

For all the details on Jordan Turpin’s brave journey to freedom and her life now,subscribe now to PEOPLEor pick up this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.

When she walked into the fast food restaurant, “I didn’t know what to say on the spot, but I just knew I deeply needed a job,” she says of her desperation.

They offered her the late shift, “and there were times I had to walk an hour in the middle of the night to work so I could afford food,” adds Jordan, who says she was never taught how to take the bus. “It was really scary.”

“Every time my eyes would close, I dreamed about being [in my foster home],” she says. “I had to go to the emergency room a lot. I was really, really broken.”

“I wasn’t doing well,” she says of initially turning down the interview. “But I felt we weren’t the only ones being treated wrong in the systemandI wanted to help my siblings.”

After the ABCspecial aired, she finally saw change. “The people that really know they messed up were just gone,” she says. “Some quit and said, ‘I don’t work here anymore.”

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Jordan finally moved into her own apartment this past February, and she’s making plans for the future as she continues on her path to healing.

Her joyful TikTok accounthas amassed 750,000 followers over the last year, and she hopes to eventually return to college to study English, write a memoir and pursue a career in motivational speaking.

In April, shemet one of her idols, TikTok superstar Charli D’Amelio, whose videos have brought her joy in her darkest times.

“Jordan is truly so kind and so smart. We spent lots of time together making TikToks, talking and getting to know each other,” D’Amelio tells PEOPLE. “She is the sweetest person and I am really lucky to be a positive influence for her just as she is to me.”

Jordan’s greatest hope, she says, is that she can inspire the same happiness in one of her own viewers who may be struggling.

“I really want to spread awareness about mental health and how we can make things better. People need somebody to speak up, and I think I can do that,” she says. “Something that gets me through some really tough times is knowing that I can make a difference one day. I really want to help others and I’m going to stay strong. There’s a lot that I want to do.”

source: people.com