For Mary Williams, growing up in East Oakland as the daughter of Black Panthers seemed about as far as you could get from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Her father, often on the front lines of violent protests, was sent to prison in 1972 when Mary was four, and her siblings started drifting apart after her mother lost her job, forcing the family into dire financial straits. But Mary's life changed when an uncle invited her to attend a summer camp in Santa Barbara started by his friend Jane Fonda. In addition to finding peace and a break from her dramatic home life for a few weeks each year, Mary found a friend in the actress. "She actually talked to me," Mary recalls about Jane. "She listened to me and she engaged with me. I never had someone interested in what I had to say or thought."

By the time Mary turned 15, she felt close enough to Jane to open up about her dysfunctional life back in East Oakland. Jane was so moved by her story that she asked the teen to come live with her, an invitation Mary didn't think twice about accepting. From that moment on, Mary received all the love and support, education, and opportunities that she had only been able to dream about in her "former life." "I feel that Jane gave me a second chance," she tells Rachael, "and also that sense of making me feel safe and good in my skin. Courage and confidence that you can do something different and step outside of it, I think is the gift."

Years after receiving those precious gifts, Mary explains how she's paying it forward. "My first job was working with homeless women and children," she says. "I went on to do work with refugees and international work, so I’ve always done social work my whole adult life. But about four years ago, I realized that I don’t cry very often - there was something emotionally missing - so I just said I want to take time off. I’m a workaholic by nature, so I just had to quit everything and get rid of a lot of stuff and try to heal myself." Mary explains that going through this process has allowed her to be there more for others. "I think that’s also paying it forward, because if you’re a decent person and you’re the person you want to be and you're proud of yourself, that is a way of giving back because people don’t want to work with a jerk; you want to be the best person you can be."

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