Welcome to Little Red Survivor
Where story, survival, and hope meet.
For years, I’ve been drawn to stories about people whose voices were ignored, controlled, rewritten, or forgotten. Some survived abusive homes. Others lived under rigid belief systems. Some crossed oceans, endured loss, or carried heartbreak in silence. Yet beneath all of these stories runs the same question:
How do we hold onto ourselves in a world that asks us to disappear?
The name Little Red Survivor comes from the fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood walking through the dark woods, vulnerable to dangers she does not yet understand. One of the oldest versions of the tale tells how Little Red asked the Wolf to let her use the outhouse. He agreed, but only if she wore a string tied around her finger so he could know if she tried to escape. Trusting her instincts, Little Red tied the string to the outhouse door and ran for her life.
I love this version of the story because Little Red didn’t wait for the woodsman to save her. She saved herself.
Little Red is a symbol for all who were harmed in the name of love. And Little Red Memoir is about reclaiming our voices after others tried to silence us.
Until I was forty-five, I couldn’t tell you what was wrong with my life, but I felt stifled. Then one day I found myself screaming into the mirror, “Why can’t you be yourself?”
That’s the day I realized I was repeating the lies my parents had given me. I was finally ready to speak my truth and destroy those lies. I began by telling the truth about my unconventional childhood to a couple of friends. One gave me The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. For the first time in my life the shame of what my parents did fell away and I began to be unequivocally myself. Out of that awakening came two memoirs.
But you don’t have to be a writer of memoir to find your voice. It can start today with telling yourself the truth. Then maybe share it with one trusted friend.
Some stories were buried beneath shame.
Others were rewritten by those who held power.
Many survivors learned early how to stay silent in order to survive.
Reclaiming our stories is an act of reclaiming ourselves.
On this Substack you will find reflections on storytelling, survival, narcissistic family systems, false faith narratives, and the deeper patterns hidden inside our stories. Many of these ideas are explored through what I call the Fairytale Lens—the belief that real lives often mirror the emotional archetypes found in fairytales: villains, heroes, fairy godmothers, transformation, and the search for belonging.
This space exists for readers, writers, survivors, and anyone who is trying to make sense of their past to find their voice.
Little Red Survivor is a reminder that our stories—and the people who lived them—will not be forgotten.
I’m grateful you’re here.
Cherilyn Christen Clough
Author of Memoir and Historical Fiction
