We are in this earth, but not of it.

19-year-old Alecia Faith Pennington has spent her life so sheltered by her Christian fundamentalist parents that now, as a young adult, she is finding it almost impossible to prove to the government that she actually exists.

For starters, they gave birth to her at home, and declined to get a birth certificate or social security number. She was then homeschooled, and the family never took her to a hospital or doctor’s office.

As a result, this profound lack of documentation has meant that Pennington is a de facto non-entity. She is boxed out of nearly every aspect of social or professional life:

“I am unable to get a driver’s license, get a job, go to college, get on a plane, get a bank account, or vote.”

She is essentially stuck in a dizzying catch-22: You need documentation to get other documentation in order to get the first documentation.

Pennington’s troubles seem to lie squarely with her parents, whom are extremely religious and appear to reject engaging in many of the basics of society that many of us take for granted. Pennington says that she has since left home, unable to deal with her parents’ lifestyle any longer.

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