“I could no longer be a part of the silence.”

STIGMATIZED: A Mongolian Girl's Journey from Stigma & Illness to Empowerment teaches that our struggles are our stories, and that accepting every part of who we are — even the parts we hide — is essential to growth. Handaa Enkh-Amgalan offers readers the tools to reflect on and articulate their previous experiences, while empowering them to rediscover who they are and find hope. Enkh-Amgalan intertwines her journey battling tuberculosis and the associated, pervasive social prejudice with stories of growing up in the nomadic country of Mongolia and pursuing education abroad. She chronicles:

* Her daily fight for a spot on the bus out of her shantytown in Ulaanbaatar
* Sleeping just two or three hours a night for years as she studied English
* Who she turned to the night she was evicted from her apartment a world away from home
* How she proved skeptics – including family members – wrong about her destiny.

In her debut book, Enkh-Amgalan deftly and earnestly combines storytelling with advocacy, drawing parallels to other stigmatized populations and embracing survivor identity.