Ryan Phillips
story by Sarah Wright
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Ryan Phillips, a 20-year-old single mother, smokes outside with a fellow temporary employee at the Akebono plant in Springfield Ky., during their lunch break.
Ryan Phillips tries to take her mind off the rough day that included her car breaking down and learning that her rent was going up..
"This is where I hang out, and this is who I hang out with, my best friend," Ryan Phillips said when speaking of her life with her 3-month-old baby, Graycee Joe. The night before, the young mother went to the hospital for what was believed to be food poisoning.
"Nothing in the place works and they want me to pay $383 a month. Nothing works," Ryan Phillips said. She lives in a low income-housing apartment and saw her rent increase more than 200 percent after she found a job.
Ryan Phillips stops in to kill time at the furniture store where her aunt Sherry Spurpin works while waiting for the father of her baby to get off work.
An activated smoke detector irritates Ryan Phillips as she tries to cook four entrees for dinner. The smoke detector is one of the few things in her apartment that work, but it didn't have the sound power to wake her daughter, Graycee.
Ryan Phillips separates her clothing before doing her laundry.
Children from Ryan Phillips' apartment complex usually swarm her when she's outside, crying out her name as they trail her.