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Abandoned houses
The family of two lived in a series of abandoned houses and even cars. At a tender young age when most children are used to playing in playgrounds and enjoying warm meals in the comfort of a caring and nurturing environment, the girl who would become Madzilla was learning to expect different things from the world around her. “We even needed to eat out of dumpsters. My mom taught me how to go dumpster diving,” she says with a slight laugh that reinforces the inner strength she’s needed to survive. “Most of my clothes and shoes were out of the dumpster when I was younger.”
Hollywood script
It would all be a classic Hollywood script if it wasn’t real. However this is a genuine scenario and not one where art imitates life. Eventually, her mother allowed her to go live in another state with some relatives. Her mother told her she’d be back at the end of the summer but it was a trip that would last three years and leave another mark on her personality and the
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person she is today. The relatives that she stayed with wouldn’t allow her to talk to her mother on the phone unless they were standing within earshot so Madelyn wouldn’t tell her what was really going on in her new life.
Walking billboard
In a way, she’s a walking billboard for her own history. Take the letter B that’s tattooed on the side of her face as a tribute to her half-brother Brian who’s been incarcerated for years. When she was 13 years old, Madzilla and her mother settled in a trailer park in Arizona. The other residents were mostly crack addicts and not surprisingly they fought constantly in living quarters that were unfit for both. “Me and my mom shared a bedroom. I’d come home from school and there’d be heroin needles on the floor.”
A pair of skulls
Back then she got her first set of tattoos which were a pair of skulls shaped like
cherries. Not surprisingly, the young girl set out on a road that might have led to her eventual ruin. At 14, she moved out to hang around with some friends who were headed down the same path. She lived in group homes, crashed where she could and was often homeless during the period. It was a recipe for a wasted life and certain disaster. However, Madelyn had another set of genes in her makeup that were to set her on a different path and maybe save her life. She explains what prompted this life changing pivot. “At one point my mom and I were living with my grandmother. I’m named after my grandma and she is one of the big reasons that I became a model.” Vintage pinup When she describes that relative as “a super pretty vintage pinup looking lady” who modeled back in the day, you can hear her voice change and become hopeful and buoyant. There were modeling pictures around the space all three shared that motivated Madelyn from a young age to look beyond