Changing your demeanor can change your life

Melissa McCarty, a veteran news reporter and actress, came close to being a statistic, as a high school dropout who was surrounded by criminals in the rough neighborhoods of Northern California where she grew up. It was her dreams and focused career path in television that helped give her the strength to overcome a past she spent most of her life running from.

Fed up watching her friends and older brother, Mikey, succumb to addiction, gangs, and violence, she embarked on a whirlwind journey moving state to state earning her stripes in TV news.

With aggressive drive to succeed, Melissa realized there was a silent warfare brewing within her family, suppressing any milestone of success. The enemy and its ability to make those it touched powerless, hopeless, and teetering on deaths door was an undiagnosed mental illnesses that afflicted her brother, her hero, and protector growing up.

In News Girls Don't Cry, Melissa McCarty shares an intense account of what families go through when one must fight mental and emotional wars each day. Her brother, diagnosed with social phobias, bi-polar, and debilitating alcoholism, has been deprived of life. He'd self-destruct as Melissa tried to keep secret the headlines she reported each night that mimicked similar instances in her personal life.

Through the pain, there's discovery of awareness, achieving personal and professional balance, and tackling diseases that still try to stripe her family of living their full potential. It's an inspiring story of overcoming adversity and welcoming second chances.