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People thought she would end up poor or locked up. She proved them wrong.
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• 4:11
Liliana Flores at a park in the San Fernando Valley. "They had this image of me — and the people who are incarcerated — [that] they are just bad people," she said. "It pissed me off." After years of cycling in and out of juvenile detention, she decided to turn her life around.
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Annie Gilbertson/KPCC
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Lilana Flores had the bad luck of being born into poverty and violence. She sensed people expected little of her, and as a teenager ended up in the hands of L.A. County's beleaguered foster care and probation agencies. Ultimately, Liliana decided to turn her life around.
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