Jaslene Gonzalez

How did you get involved with Love Is Respect?
I became familiar with it when I was doing my Seventeen photo shoot. They sponsored my shirt, which [said] Love Is Not Abuse with a heart. And then a few months passed, and Liz Claiborne approached me about being their spokesperson for Love Is Not Abuse. This is my first project with raising awareness to young teens and domestic violence.

What made you come out to Seventeen about your history with domestic violence?
I had a lot of fans coming up and asking like, "What happened? Why didn’t you make it the first time around?" So I felt the need to explain what I went through. That was the reason why I didn't make it on the show. I spoke to [the producers] freely about this relationship, and the word "abuse" didn’t even exist in my vocabulary because at that point, I didn’t think that was what it was. I thought that was just a regular relationship that had its ups and downs, and they recognized it [as abuse].

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