Nicole Vick has spent the last fifteen years providing tools and strategies to stakeholders, community-based organizations, students, and residents to improve health and prevent disease in some of Los Angeles County’s most underserved communities. 

 

In Pushing Through she shares both the heartbreaking pain and the extraordinary triumphs that led her to advocacy and social justice work. Her early years of self-doubt and discomfort in her own skin would set her up for decades of bad choices and difficult situations: a teen pregnancy that could have derailed a lifelong dream, a health scare caused by unsuitable partners that mirrored her poor self-image, and the struggle to attain the ideal body that led her to take drastic measures.

 

Her story takes place against the background of the long-neglected and overlooked community of South-Central Los Angeles, where she grapples with the grotesque imbalance of power and privilege as it unfolds in every aspect of her life and those around her.  

 

Nicole found herself walking between two very different worlds. She traversed seamlessly between the past and the present, and poverty and privilege. As time passed, the duality in her world grew larger and much more complex, manifesting very deep and painful emotional experiences.

 

Nicole channeled those painful moments of her life into prime opportunities for personal growth. She learned to make sense of the two worlds she existed in and used that skill to connect, build, and create community, comradery, and a sense of purpose.