For much of Chantell Disco's young life, family was an elusive concept.

She had spent much of her time in foster care, bouncing from home to home from the age of 8. Amid this rootlessness, by the age of 12 she says anger had built up in her.

That anger led her into trouble.

She's quick to rattle off statistics. "By the age of 13, I was one of the 45 percent of teens labeled 'troubled,'" the now 21-year-old told the audience of the New London Youth Talent Show this past spring.

She described how she would run away, get in trouble with the police or end up sent to a psychiatric hospital. "By the age of 14, I was one of 35 percent of teens" who try to take their own life, she said.

Then, things began to change. Or, rather, she began to change.

"I don't want my life to be like this. ... I'm not a bad kid, I just have a lot of bad stuff going on," she recalled thinking at the time.

She enjoyed watching motivational speakers in online videos. She imagined what it would be like to do such a thing but said it was not something she "really thought about" getting into.

Then, at age 16, she began to share her story, becoming a motivational speaker, herself.

That's when, she says, she became extraordinary.

"When I started speaking, I started healing from the past," she told The Day. "For me, in order for me to heal, I had to share my story."

She turned it into her own business at age 17, venturing into classrooms and onto stages to talk about the foster system, her experiences, how she rose from her life's challenges and transformed them into strengths.

She's since finished high school and now attends college. And she's still sharing her story.

"As bad as things seem, there's always going to be something positive to come out of it. You just have to look for the positive," she said.