- Jordan Turpin was 17 when she managed to escape her parents' abusive home and call for help.
- Five years later, she's become an influencer who is signed with modeling and entertainment agencies.
- Turpin told Elle magazine she still struggles with her past and cries most days.
Jordan Turpin and her 13 siblings escaped from their parents' abusive home — dubbed the "House of Horrors" — in 2018. Five years later she's managed to grow a huge TikTok following and sign with a modeling agency.
Jordan Turpin was 17 when she escaped from the family home and managed to call for help. Her parents, David and Louise Turpin, who rarely let their children go outside or bathe, underfed them, and even chained them up for weeks at a time, pleaded guilty in 2019 to more than a dozen felonies that included cruelty, torture, and false imprisonment. In April 2019 they were sentenced to life in prison, with the chance of parole after 25 years.
The minor Turpin children were placed in foster care, where they said they experienced additional abuse, while the adult children had to learn basic life skills and how to support themselves.
Jordan and Jennifer Turpin spoke publicly about what they went through for the first time in 2021 in an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer. Since that interview aired, Jordan Turpin has continued to share more about herself online, garnering thousands of fans.
Now 22, she has more than 925,000 followers on TikTok, where she frequently posts videos of herself dancing and mouthing along to a trending song. In December 2021, she posted a couple videos of her and Loren Gray, one of the most-followed people on TikTok. And in April she posted a video dancing with Charli D'Amelio, one of TikTok's most famous influencers, known for her own dance videos.
In October, she and her sister Jennifer even attended the movie premiere for "Catherine Called Birdy," an experience she documented for her fans on TikTok.
In an interview with Elle magazine published Monday, Turpin described her transformation into an influencer, but said it hasn't come without challenges.
"My normal day? I usually, um, cry," Turpin said, laughing. "Then I try to get myself to eat. And then I start to do my makeup, but I cry, so I have to do it over. And then I try to do a TikTok, but I'm like, 'Oh, people are going to say this and that about me.'"
In recent months, Turpin has gotten a modeling contract with a top agency and signed with top Hollywood publicity firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis as well as the entertainment company WME, Elle reported. She has regular talks with her team about where to take her career and how to get her story more visible.
But Turpin told Elle there are frequent reminders of her past life in her parents' home. At one point, when she was taking Pilates after her escape, she realized it was hard to lie on her back due to lingering injuries to her spine and muscles. She also said she struggles to eat enough food as a result of being malnourished while growing up.
"We all know how bad [the house] was, but we realize now how much they took from us," she said. "If I had eaten more, I'd probably be taller. And I'd be more healthy, and I'd probably… It really gets to us."