Episode 19 – Foster Care Grief & Disability Advocacy: Turning Pain into Purpose w/ Lexi Mattocks

In this episode, Dana Daugherty invites her guest Lexi Mattocks to share her powerful journey of surviving foster care adversity and finding identity in becoming a survivor and a community leader. Lexi grew up in an abusive household where she became the whistleblower for her family’s struggles while dedicating herself to protecting her seven foster siblings, often sacrificing her own goals to keep them safe. We talk about what it meant for her to become a guardian for her severely disabled foster brothers, and how that experience shaped her into an advocate for differently abled people. Lexi opens up about surviving homelessness during her final year of college, and how she found healing, discipline, and a new sense of identity through powerlifting. We also explore the tools she leaned on to cope in her twenties, and why those same tools needed to evolve as she enters her thirties and a new chapter: motherhood. Lexi speaks candidly about confronting generational trauma, grieving what she didn’t have, and why she believes there is real courage in knowing when and how to ask for help. She reflects on the role models she needed to lean on throughout her life, and the lessons she’s carried into her advocacy work today. 

Lexi Mattocks is a South Korean adoptee, survivor, and advocate whose life has been shaped by resilience in the face of trauma. She’s on the board for the USA Powerlifting Disabled Athletes Committee, and has a passion for spreading adaptive awareness in the gym, science lab, and community.

You can find Lexi on Instagram @lexi_adaptive_athlete or on YouTube @LexiAdaptiveAthlete.