alyssa was an oops baby if there ever was one. by the time mimi amaro found out she was pregnant her boyfriend had left her and her young son and she was on her own. the young working mother wanted to give her children the best that she could possibly could and she did. even when things were challenging for her she rose above it all and she was blessed with two children who were well behaved. alyssa was a baby who slept through the night and was only fussy when she felt very strongly about something. it made it easy when mimi had to pass them off to day care or to various sitters who helped to raise her children while she provided them with the best life possible.

when alyssa was five years old she discovered one of her friends was involved in dancing. the idea of being on stage and dancing was exciting and she begged mimi to enroll her in classes. money was always tight but she found that the school had options for families with limited resources and alyssa found herself immersed in the world of dance. she would go to school and go straight to the dance school and would do her homework while she was there. home wasn't something that she really knew and the dance world became her family. mimi was so proud of her daughter for doing the thing that she loved most and she took on extra shifts so she could pay for her daughter's dream. when she was eight years old she started to dance competitively and loved meeting girls on the competition circuit.

when she started to compete she was told that her technique was great but her face needed some work and she was sent to acting lessons. she fell in love with it instantly and kept up with her acting classes in between her competitions. she was in her acting class when she met a girl that she realized she had a huge crush on when she was 12 years old. she shoved that down really fast and didn't want to confront the fact that she had feelings for another girl. in 2009 mimi was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and alyssa's world crumbled. her mom had always been her biggest fan and she stopped dancing so she wouldn't be traveling so much. she kept up with her acting and she would do shows to fill her creative outlet.

in 2011 her mother died and alyssa's heart was broken. she didn't know how to deal with her grief so she used her creative outlet as a way to cope. her uncle lyle came to live with their family with his ex-wife. she appreciated the fact that he was there to help but that wouldn't bring her mom back to life. she wanted to tell her mom that she was gay before she died and she never got up the nerve to do it. she would also go out to parties and drink alcohol as an act of rebellion. being hungover at school wasn't a way she wanted to spend her time and her senior year she got her act together while she applied to schools for acting. she was accepted to academy of art with a scholarship and she was glad to move from the east coast to the west coast. before she left she officially came out to her family and went on her way.

she had never been so far away from family and it was a learning curve. she started working in restaurants and bars to support herself while she was going through school. it was also the first time that she could really explore herself as an out lesbian and that was an exciting prospect for her. she learned a lot about herself and her rebellious ways calmed down. it didn't mean that she wasn't still sassy and told it like it was. her confidence was building but every single failed audition or criticism in her acting brought her back down to being humble. her uncle recently came to san francisco and she finally has her family back with her and she couldn't be happier about that. she wants to make decisions that will make her mom proud and she tries to do it every day.