What The Life Of Marilyn Monroe Teaches Us About Mental Health And Success Against All Odds

The name Norma Jeane Mortenson wouldn’t mean much to most Americans, but that was the birth name of Marilyn Monroe, who remains one of the most recognizable names in Hollywood and considered one of the most beautiful women and best actresses in Hollywood. all time in the United States. During her stellar career, Monroe won numerous awards and earned a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Nevertheless, Norma Jeane’s journey to Marilyn Monroe it was not easy and it was full of many obstacles; The obstacles Monroe had to overcome have made her life a big topic of discussion ever since she tragically passed away in 1962. Hollywood has always been a tough place for women to make it, much less in Monroe’s day, but Monroe is one of those whose career will mark will always be remembered for having paved the way for women in the industry.

Marilyn’s first years of life: abandonment and adoption

Marilyn’s mother, Gladys Baker, was mentally unstable and financially unable to care for her, so Marilyn lived in foster care from early childhood until age seven before entering the system and becoming a ward of the state.

After some time in the system, Gladys Baker’s best friend Grace McKee became Marilyn’s legal guardian for a few years before Marilyn was sent to the Hollygrove orphanage in Los Angeles and bounced around foster homes before returning. to Grace McKee’s house as a teenager.

When Marilyn turned 16, Grace and her husband moved to the East Coast and were unable to take Marilyn with them. To prevent her from returning to her foster home, she married a neighbor, James Dougherty.

According to Sun Yong Kim-Manzolini, women’s advocate, options trader and founder of Lush Enterprises, LLC, “Some people’s lives just don’t start out balanced. These people have to struggle to find balance in their souls and to experience the upsides of life without being limited by her past trauma. Marilyn’s story resonates with women like me, who have found a way to rise in their industry and find their footing against wildly unfair odds.”

“All things being equal, women like us never rise to prominence,” opines Kim-Manzolini, “the weight of abandonment can weigh so heavily on your soul that you can barely move, let alone dream.”

Kim-Manzolini remembers growing up in an orphanage for the disabled in South Korea, where she was born at home. She was born with a lower lip and crooked legs, her parents abandoned her and she didn’t even learn to walk until she was seven years old. At fourteen, she was adopted by an American couple with six biological children and one adopted son. She became her eighth child and was brought to the United States, where she struggled with her self-esteem, not knowing the language and adjusting to a new culture.

She insists: “The ability to dream and work hard can take anyone to any height, even if you were dealt the wrong cards at a young age.”

Marilyn and abuse

Hollywood allowed sexual abuse and sexual crimes to flourish in the industry for decades. According to veteran actress Joan Collins, Marilyn Monroe had warned her many years ago to do it; “Beware of wolves in Hollywood.” Marilyn herself had also been abused in industry by powerful men. It wasn’t until the #metoo movement that these sexual crimes were exposed in the industry.

Unfortunately for Ms. Monroe, her abuse didn’t start in Hollywood; she started out in one of the numerous orphanages in which she had grown up. Marilyn later admitted that she was raped at age 11, an experience that stayed with her for the rest of her life and which many psychologists suspect contributed to her subsequent divorce from all three of her. husbands Against all these horrible odds, Marilyn Monroe still accomplished so many amazing feats in her life that have kept her relevant to this day.

Marilyn’s career and success

monroe always dreamed of the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. When her soldier husband, Mr. Dougherty, was sent to the South Pacific, she started working in a munitions factory. In this factory, a photographer discovered her strikingly beautiful and began taking pictures of her. This initially surprised her because she had never considered herself pretty.

When Mr. Dougherty returned, Marilyn the face was on hundreds of magazine covers, and he wanted her to stop. Marilyn was not willing to give up her dream, and this disagreement eventually led to a divorce.

After the divorce, Norma Jean changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, dyed her brown hair blonde as a sign of a new beginning, and began the transition from modeling to acting.

Monroe was not initially considered star material. She was released from many movie contracts and had to settle for many roles as an awkward blonde. Marilyn’s determination to succeed made her move to new york city to study acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors’ Studio, a decision that made her one of the greatest Hollywood actresses of all time.

Kim-Manzolini recalls his similar trip. She got a scholarship to study nursing, decided to take a shortcut and became a Certified Physician Assistant due to the language barrier, graduated and worked as a CMA (which consists of nursing duties in doctors’ offices) and clinics for 33 years, but still he was working odd jobs to make ends meet. As a CMA, she wasn’t earning her dream income, so she decided to become an entrepreneur.

He went into real estate and options trading despite his hatred of technology and computers. “In my first year of options trading, I set out to make $100,000, but instead made $178,000. I instantly knew this was something I could spend more time on.”

Years later, Kim-Manzolini is training others in options trading and entrepreneurship. “Just like in the Marilyn story, if you get off to a bad start, you have to have an intense work ethic to catch up.”

Adversity and Mental Health

If there’s one dent in Monroe’s story of victory and success, it’s her death from an overdose in 1962. In the end, the success of Marilyn’s life wasn’t enough to deal with the demons she battled inside her. Marilyn’s life became one of Hollywood’s earliest catalysts for discussion of mental health.

“I had to go through a lot of counseling in my life,” admits Ms. Kim-Manzolini, “I had to seek help for PTSD and my self-esteem issues. I had no self-confidence and no boundaries, I wanted to please my parents all the time, and I didn’t know how to say no. My mindset was always like, ‘Why me?’ Why should I get the finer things in life? But I soon changed that to ‘Why not me?’ mindset. Even with my second marriage to Mike I have to fight for him it was really hard considering all the abuse in the first one. We had to go to Celebrate Recovery for 27 months. It’s a Christian counseling relationship group that essentially saved my marriage Mental health issues should never be left unattended, or they will eventually ruin all the hard work.”

Kim-Manzolini is passionate about seniors, single parents, and people born disadvantaged. She believes the Monroe model can be replicated to help anyone achieve the life of their dreams.