Years of lonely and painful birthdays led one 19-year-old to turn to Craigslist to look for people willing to act like a loving family when she turns 20 later this month.
In a stunningly frank ad, Natalie Carson of Colorado wrote that she's a "Young Female College Student looking to 'rent' family for birthday" because she aged out of the foster care system after years of living in an abusive household in Georgia.
"I just want one day that I can feel important and special, and like I matter if I really don't," she wrote last week. "I have never had a good birthday so I figure why not this birthday."
Carson even offered to pay $8 per hour to have a special day on June 10.
In interviews, she's described some of the torment she experienced, such as the year her foster father threw out the doll that her grandmother gave her.
She left the system at 18 and moved to Denver, where she was homeless. She got a GED and began taking computer science classes, she told KMGH.
The original ad no longer appears on the site. Others, however, have wished Carson a happy birthday in ads they posted in response to hearing her story.
"I wish we lived closer and could fulfill your request rent free," someone from Wyoming posted. "I wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday and I hope that you do well in college and continue to be the strong person you seem to be."