Nancy Fairbank, a senior majoring in political science at the University of Texas at Dallas, has published a book on teen homelessness.
The book, titled Throwaway Youth: Stories of Springfield’s Homeless Teens, documents Fairbank’s work with homeless teens while working on a journalism project in high school.
“One of the things that really drew me to write the book was the fact that I had no idea how significant a problem this was and how many homeless youth there were,” Fairbank, a McDermott Scholar, said. “To realize there was this huge problem that no one was really addressing was very shocking.”
In her book, which was published by Missouri State University’s Moon City Press, Fairbank tells the stories of the teens living on the streets in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri that she interviewed.
“I really wanted to help get out their life stories and their truths, and show people that they were homeless because of severe neglect and maltreatment,” she said. “Despite all the circumstances they’d been through, they were still wonderful people, smart people who were doing their best to get off the streets, get an education, get a job and help themselves out of that situation.”
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