She was 10 years old when she was rescued from an abusive home.

So that people wouldn't tease her and reject her, she has kept her story a secret.

Until now...And she's taking up the voice of An Angel In Our Midst.

Voice of Bianca Chavez; She abused me, she abused her children. She used drugs, she used alcohol.

17 year old Bianca Chavez is taking a bold step. She is lifting the veil on the secrets of her shattered life.

Bianca; My mom beat me for, ever since I was about six years old. And she always called me her little angel.

Those memories are still very fresh and painful; they don't go away. But, Bianca does hope to erase the stigma of what came next. She, her brother and two sisters were separated in foster care.

Bianca; I've always been moved around. I went to... Three middle schools. I went to Ransom, Wedgewood and Brentwood.

Many schools, four foster families and one group home later, Bianca wants her classmates and others to know what this life is like so maybe they'll have compassion for the ones who come behind her.

Amber Presley, 10th Grader; For everything, I run to my mom. I know she couldn't do so I can't imagine how her life was.

Kathy Guy, Dept. of Children and Families; Because of the stigma that sometimes follows them, there's a lot of barriers and a lot of shame and she said she wanted to make a difference.

Bianca; Most people, they look at foster kids as bad; bad kids, you know, who put their ownselves in this situation, but it's not.

Bianca is about to age out of the system. At age 18, just as she beings her senior year in high school, she'll be out on her own.

Bianca; It's scary, actually. Especially when you're in foster care because they want you out. They want you out of that system.

She worries a lot about the brother still struggling to overcome the abuse; feeling powerless to help him.

Bianca; My brother is 15. He is still in sixth grade. This is his third time.

The students hung on her every word. As she had hoped, she touched them.

Liella Parker, 10th Grader; Me and my sisters, we've always been kinda close and if we were ever separated, I couldn't survive without them.

Bianca wants her peers to think about becoming foster parents themselves some day or even adopting. Then maybe children like her won't languish in the system with no place to call home and aging out, all alone...Someone to hear their often silent cries.

Bianca; And they pray every night to change that and nothing happens, you know, unless one person, one person could change the world.Angels In Our Midst (Bianca Chavez)