Feb 9, 2023

CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/7/2023

Podcasts, Troubled Teen Industry, Esther Crawford

Insider: A survivor of a controversial school for troubled teens was unexpectedly featured in a true-crime podcast. Now, she's speaking out against the genre.
• Sela Freuler attended a school for troubled girls that made headlines over the death of a student.
• When a true-crime podcast used her story for an episode, she spoke out against the genre.
• She told Insider she wants true-crime creators to be more considerate of survivors' feelings.

"Sela Freuler, a 30-year-old woman from Phoenix, Arizona, unexpectedly became the subject of an episode of a true-crime podcast — and now she's using her platform to speak out against the genre."

Insider: One of Elon Musk's top lieutenants at Twitter says she 'grew up in a cult'
'Esther Crawford, one of Elon Musk's top lieutenants at Twitter, "grew up in a cult."

Before the billionaire bought Twitter in October, Crawford tweeted about the experience, saying it taught her a lot, including the importance of changing your mind when presented with new facts.

"We had lots of rules (can't cut hair, no makeup, no pants, no tv, no secular music, etc) and hierarchical leadership," Crawford wrote in a tweet on April 16, 2022. "We believed it was the 'end times' so I lived in fear of doing anything wrong & being left behind. I exited on my own when I was 19."

She also shared a photo of herself growing up and with a current picture.

Crawford and a spokesperson for Twitter did not respond to requests for comment from Insider ahead of publication.

While Crawford did not specify exactly what "cult" she grew up in, she did say in an earlier tweet that it was a "very small/insular community" and a sect Christianity.

The Financial Times was the first to report on Crawford's history. She went on to get a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Oregon State University, and a master's in international relations and national securities studies at Durham University, per her LinkedIn.

Crawford worked at a startup in Silicon Valley that was acquired by Twitter in 2020, her LinkedIn profile shows. She also was a social media strategist for Weight Watchers between 2007 to 2012."

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