There was a time when Rita Lynn Lester wore makeup only when she needed to hide bruises. She says she spent 13 years and had three children with a man who abused her. She met him she was 15, and didn't leave until she was 28.
"It started out small," she said. "Maybe he would raise his voice, or he went from raising his voice to slapping me or choking me. And it went from choking to punching and kicking, and then restraining. And then there were hospital visits, a couple of miscarriages. It got pretty bad."
Functioning in dysfunction, is what she calls it — until the night he knocked her unconscious as she held their infant daughter.
"He just reached back, it seemed like with all his might, and punched me straight across the face. And she flew out of my arms," Lester said.
She woke up to sobbing children and a destroyed home and decided enough was enough. That was four years ago.
Now she's turned everything she's learned about makeup into a platform, using Facebook Live. She teaches others her glamour secrets in makeup tutorials, while also sharing her story of enduring and overcoming domestic violence.
She's developed a growing following on both her Facebook pages, calling herself the "Real Rita Lynn," because she is no longer hiding.
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"I started to read different comments from women that were coming in," Lester said. "It started a whole conversation."
Other victims of domestic violence were tuning in, and being inspired.
