Coming up on the one-year anniversary of their Book "Redefining Normal" Justin and Alexis update our audience what they have been up to and what is coming up for them.

Growing up, they didn’t believe they had a future. Together, they are building forever.

Alexis Black was six when her mother died and thirteen when her father went to prison for child endangerment.  After subsequently surviving a long and abusive relationship, the college junior promised her foster parents that she would avoid romantic entanglements for at least a year. But when she met incoming freshman Justin on the first day of their scholarship program, they both felt the world melt away, leaving just the two of them in the room. 

Justin Black lived in abandoned houses in the poorest section of Detroit before his parents surrendered him to CPS at the age of nine. He stayed in the child welfare system until he was graduated from high school. Determined to be the first in his family to pursue higher education, Black attended Western Michigan University, where he met beautiful third-year Alexis. At first,  their past traumas--and their age difference--conspired to complicate their attraction. But the joy each took in the other eventually conquered those obstacles, and these two survivors journeyed hand-in-hand toward healing.

In their stark and often shocking story,  Alexis and Justin reveal how two people brutalized in childhood managed to defy the odds, get healthy, and build a new life together. Guided by hope and a sense of purpose, as well as a desire to help others who have similarly suffered, they learned to reject the abusive patterns of their past, thereby breaking the cycle of generational violence and neglect. 

Written in alternating accounts,  Justin and Alexis offer a thoughtful exchange of ideas and personal experiences illustrating how anybody, no matter their background, can heal and find joy.

We talk to them about how they met and started their romantic relationship. They are now working as full-time entrepreneurs.

They started an organization called Redefining Normal to talk about mental health boundaries, healthy relationships, definitions of love, community success, and all of the things in the books.

They have several workbooks, graphic novels, and other items in the works. Justin has a podcast called ROSE from Concrete.

You can reach out at [email protected] or follow them on social media
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