Growing Up In A Cult, Lauren Hough Freed Herself By Writing

Hough was 15 when her family left the Children of God cult. Afterward, she struggled to face the trauma of her past. At 18 she joined the Air Force during "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and was discharged for being gay. "I spent a long time lying to myself more than, I think, anyone else. Telling myself that my childhood didn't affect me, telling myself that the military didn't affect me," she says. "I think writing, more than anything, brought that out. ... You kind of have to tell the truth or it's crap and you know it." Her new collection of personal essays is 'Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing.'

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