And there is no judgment. On Oct. 27, a 19-year-old Detroit woman named Aziah Wells tweeted from the account @_zolarmoon a story that's since been read by millions: In it, she describes an eyebrow-raising weekend trip with a woman she barely knows, her overbearing pimp, and the woman's teary, manic-depressive boyfriend. "That Zola story wild," tweeted the rapper and producer Missy Elliott, one of more than 200,000 people to tweet about Wells's story in the past week. TWITTER user Zola infamously began: "You wanna hear a story about how me and this b***h fell out? "Go work one weekend, make $15- or $20 or $30,000. Jessica Kwiatkowski - JessicaKwiatko1 . Jessica Adams. "If you want to go home, you'll have to (fornicate) your way out.". In its 2012 recommendations on decreasing violence against sex workers, the World Health Organization also suggests passing explicit anti-discrimination laws and creating health programs and centers that cater specifically to the needs of sex workers. But how much is actually true? Ahead of Agust D going on tour this spring/summer 2023, we take a look at all the information you need to score tickets to see Daisy Jones And The Six spring to life this March as a TV adaptation of the best-selling book premieres on Amazon Prime Video. When he got up to take a call in the bathroom, she fled. To many of the hundreds of thousands of people who read Wells' tweets last week, her story was a glimpse into a world that they had never seen outside TV. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Zola pictured with the man in her life. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. He dies in the Twitter thread. It does not store any personal data. ", "She's been with him a while they're definitely a team," said Forgie. And from there, the surprises just keep coming: a kidnapping, a fatal shooting, a suicide attempt. The original tweet thread was deleted from King's Twitter account, but it's been reposted for posterity on Imgur. "I'm sick and (expletive) tired of people backing Jessica up on the ZOLA story and saying it's a lie," Forgie wrote on Facebook Friday. A'Ziah King's 148-tweet thread went massively viral in October 2015, partly because the events she described were unbelievable and partly because she's an incredible storyteller. Rudy kept storming in and out, upset about different situations at the Atlantis, Forgie said. Zola and Jarrett fly back to Detroit, and then a few days later Zola gets a call from Las Vegas. Like this article? These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. in 2015 that she did indeed meet a Jessica, a 21-year-old. Aziah King in 148 tweets, which was a crazy ride for the two of them. And Zola also denied claims that she too sold sex on the trip, but insisted what happened was broadly true. But she soon found out what he did for a living. He was surprised by the amount however and gives AZiah $500 of it because hes impressed that she helped Jessica make that much. A week later, they would be on Backpage.. She says that Zola turned to prostitution after making just $1 after a night of taking her clothes off for money at a club. They went to strip club but didnt earn much money. Jessica confirmed that to Rolling Stone, sayingthat she originally metRudy after a client raped her at a strip club. Jessica Swiatkowski Student at Williamsville Erie Community College North Tonawanda, New York, United States var sc_invisible=1; Best seller in waiting. Both girls say they were driving through Nevada on their way home from a California road trip, when Pella's truck broke down in Battle Mountain, a tiny town three hours northeast of Reno. from 2015 explaining how she was roped into a series of misadventures and misdemeanors in Florida after befriending a fellow stripper named Jessica at a Detroit Hooters. A mile north on the South Virginia Street strip, Forgie was napping at the Peppermill hotel. A. notes that investigators determined that Rudy lured three Michigan women between 19 and 21 to Reno, Nevada to work as sex workers shortly after the events in Zolas thread. Just a few days after the world was captivated by Zola the stripper's insane story about hooking in Florida, one of the characters "White Bitch Jessica," says the whole story is make believe. The Twitter threads movie adaptation, createdby Janicza Bravo (who also directed the picture) and Jeremy O. Harris, hit theaters Tuesday. In #TheStory, King described how she met Jessica Rae Swiatkowski (renamed Stefani and played by Keough in the film) while waiting tables at a Hooters in Detroit. . But when Rudy was revealed to be Jessica's pimp, she finally felt her internal alarm go off. "No, it's definitely the DAMN TRUTH & Jessica knows it. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Among friends, he went by "Rudy Uwedjo," at least on Facebook, where his photo is a hulking black pitbull. Theres nothing glamorous about this, she told The Daily Beast. Rolling Stone interviewed Zola shortly after her thread went viral and she freely admitted she'd embellished reality for dramatic effect. The film is the first to be based entirely off a series of a tweets, which themselves were based on a true story, originally posted in 2015 by a woman named A'Ziah King, also known as Zola. Whats good? The supposed adventure wasn't much of a trip at first. Ive always kind of been that way and I think thats why I ended up on that trip in the first place. She had recently lost custody of her daughter, Avarella, and was living with her new boyfriend. After hitting it off, Jessica invited Aziah to join her, her boyfriend Jarrett, and her pimp "Z" to Florida. In 2015 AZiah Wells King, who was working as a Hooters server, took to her Twitter account @_zolarmoon to tell the world about an almost unbelievable series of events in her life. James Franco was originally signed on to direct the film but left the project in 2018 following allegations of sexual misconduct. .css-5rg4gn{display:block;font-family:NeueHaasUnica,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0.3125rem;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-5rg4gn:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.3;letter-spacing:-0.02em;margin:0.75rem 0 0;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.3;letter-spacing:0.02rem;margin:0.9375rem 0 0;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4;margin:0.9375rem 0 0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4;}}HBO Max Comedies Thatll Put You in a Good Mood, Everything to Know Ahead of 'Mando' Season 3, Here Are the Best Shows On HBO Max Right Now, Last of Us Star Pedro Pascal Posts Upsetting IG, Here's When to Watch 'The Last of Us' On HBO. "He talked normal, he dressed nice. Twitter. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. I was helping other girls be put into that situation, Jessica told Rolling Stone in 2015, and as someone whos been sexually abused, why would I do that? This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Within hours of their arrival, however, the girls say that they began to worry that something was amiss. He dies in the Twitter thread. Want more of our free, weekly newslettersinyourinbox? Show More; They swapped stories about dancing, and their friendship-at-first-sight chemistry lit a fuse that convinced Zola Jess was worth trusting, even if the young dancer seemed a bitmuch. The "White Bitch Jessica" is actually Michigan mother Jessica Rae Swiatkowski. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Jessicas ex-boyfriend Jarrett Scott gave his own account of the story that same year to The Daily Mail. ", Whatever their exact involvement in the industry, Baskin adds whether they're a Swiatkowski, a Pella or a Wells it's "difficult for sex workers to seek assistance.". Jessica 'Jess' Swiatkowski is a supposed previous stripper. Zola says the ordeal began when she "met this white b***h at Hooters" in Detroit and things quickly went south from there. 11 Riley Keough, left, and Taylour Paige in the trailer for the film Zola about the stripper's legendary Twitter thread Credit: A24 11 They were initially relieved, Pella said, when Swiatkowski messaged that she could help: She and her friend Rudy were headed to Reno to dance in some local clubs, and they offered to meet up with them. The enthralled public reveled at how wild of a story it was, and not long after it went viral the woman who inspired Stefani, Jessica Swiatkowski, weighed in with her version of events in a. Jessica claims that she had always intended just to strip during their trip to Florida and that it was AZiahs idea to sell ads on Backpage that night. In tweets that she has since deleted, Wells said that Rudy took her phone and against her will made a profile for her on Backpage, a classified site popular with sex workers and escorts. "People think this story is fake, but they need to have an open mind," Pella said. This is entertaining and funny to you? In tweets that she . But how much of what became known as #TheStory really happened? She was sweet, she was cute.. Zola's thread became known as #TheStory and went viral around the world - but how true is it? As opening lines go, that's up there with "A screaming comes across the sky" and "Call me Ishmael". In an interview with The Post, Swiatkowski disputed that, saying she only danced. Forgie and Pella didn't know Rudy or Swiatkowski well. Zola couldn't tell how much of Jessica's plea was manipulation and how much stemmed from genuine fear, but she stayed, worried that if she left it would spell trouble for both Jessica and herself. It's a viral Twitter thread written by a teenager that simply became known to its thousands of fans as #TheStory. Pasco schools to consider scaling back student cell phone use, Blahs and bad dreams in the pandemics fourth year, St. Petersburg restaurant employee sprayed grease on 2 co-workers, police say, New College trustees, led by DeSantis appointees, dismantle diversity office, Train derails in Manatee County near Sarasota Bradenton airport, a story that's since been read by millions, Vatican scandal heats up with revelations of greed, intrigue. Zola told Rolling Stone she made that part up for dramatic effort. See what Jessica Rae Swiatkowski (jessicaraeswiat) has discovered on Pinterest, the world's biggest collection of ideas. Jessica Forgie, who was 19 at the time, told told Oxygen.com this week that she is one of the three Michigan women mentioned; she said her best friend Breeonna Pellow and Jessica Swiatkowski were the other two. After earning $800 at a club, Zola wanted to leave. "Just statements from two scared pressured girls. But the biggest catalyst for the Zola hype is its unorthodox origin story. On October 27, a 19-year-old Detroit woman named Aziah Wells tweeted a story that's since been read by millions: In it, she describes an eyebrow-raising weekend trip with a woman she barely knows,. Rudy after a client raped her at a strip club. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. (In fact, he hadn't been sentenced because he hadn't been tried yet, though he was arraigned in July.) Chief among them is destigmatizing, or even decriminalizing, prostitution: such a move would, advocates argue, empower sex workers to report crimes, such as assault or threats of violence, without fear of getting in trouble themselves. Jessica begged her to stay, saying that she was frightened to go alone, and Zola, after realising she's earning nothing through her pimp, posts photos and a new advert of her online with a $500 minimum. "I begged her to stop," he said, "but it was like Rudy was controlling her mind or something. Powered by. On Sept. 6, the internet broke over a steamy video of Oscar Isaac gently caressing Jessica Chastain's arm at the 2021 Venice Film Festival Red Carpet Premiere of . "I said this to her many times, but she was like a real-life superhero., Today's Savannah Guthrie abruptly leaves show after scary new medical diagnosis, Sam Champion says final goodbye to colleague with touching tribute, GMA's Ginger Zee warns viewers as she delivers 'severe' and 'damaging' news, North West, 9, shows off wild dance moves in new TikTok as mom Kim jets to Milan, 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, Riley Keough, left, and Taylour Paige in the trailer for the film Zola about the stripper's legendary Twitter thread, Zola posted her story on Twitter along with pictures of her and Jessica. Rudy gave him and Wells enough money to get back home to Detroit, Scott said. Jessica 'Jess' Swiatkowski is a supposed previous stripper. Jessica Forgie, who was 19 at the time, told, this week that she is one of the three Michigan women mentioned; she said her best friend, Jessica Swiatkowskiwere the other two. Now Zola's story is getting a new lease of life on the big screen. The story also captivated 2015 Best Picture winner Selma director Ava DuVernay. While there's been a lot of question marks around the details of Wells's story, the gist is that she met a white woman named Jessica Rae Swiatkowski back in March 2015 when Swiatkowski came. "Ended up reading the whole thing like I was watching a movie on Twitter." A movie may, in fact, be forthcoming: Wells has tweeted she's been approached by a number of studios and . In October 2015 , Aziah took to Twitter to share her account of a wild weekend in Florida and her friendship with a woman named Jessica that quickly soured. The film Zola is a nonstop dangerous adventure of a Detroit waitress and part-time stripper who is way too trusting of a new friend. Zola presents itself as its own artsy acid trip, a rose-colored Florida funhouse experience set to the rapid-fire tune of incoming tweets (and, eventually, gunshots), injected with just enough chill to make you shiver. (Reno police, who said they couldn't comment on the specifics of the investigation because the case is still open, offered no further statement by the time of publication. Now, that string of 148 tweets, written in 2015 by 19 year-old Detroit waitress. Thanks to her, Akporade is now in prison. Later that same dude tries to kidnap and murder the whole group for encoraching on his territory. Later, the girls danced at 2001 Odyssey. Meanwhile,Jessica has claimed that Zola was doing sex work herself. Zola maintains that she didnt do it herself but instead helped Jessicacreate a more lucrative Backpage than the one that Rudy had arranged for her. Zola was making thousands as a stripper and thought she would get a good haul of tips in Florida, Jessica doesn't tell Zola she's a sex worker until they're already in Florida together, The trip quickly gets out of control because of Jessica's pimp, Z, renamed 'X' in the film, Succession star Nicholas Braun plays the character inspired by Jarrett in the film, The group really did go on the trip to Florida in 2015 - but some parts of Zola's story weren't true, Akporode 'Rudy' Uwedjojevwe was referred to as 'Z' in Zola's story, Jessica's name is changed to Stefani in the forthcoming film, played by Riley Keoug, Zola's story is now coming to cinemas six years on from her social media storm, Strip Down, Rise Up - Official Trailer for the Netflix pole dance documentary. Forgie, who is unhappy with the film because she feels it glamorizes sex trafficking, told. She said that after the meeting, Zola followed Jessica to Florida to strip. Aziah's Twitter story goes on to say that Z shot the man who tried to kidnap Jess. Forgie is upset by the tone and promotion of the film because she was so traumatized by her situation. "Sex workers do experience a really high level of violence, in large part due to the criminalization and stigmatization of their work. Forgie claims that Rudy then sexually assaulted her. Theres so much untapped talent in the hood., Im not from the hood tho Ava, Zola replied. Swiatkowski, the single mother of a baby girl whose father had recently gained sole custody, was living in the Detroit suburbs with her boyfriend of one month, Jarrett Scott, and Rudy, a longtime friend. Filled with As Linus Pauling Day rolls around once again, we take a look at what happened to the late chemist and why he is celebrated across March is almost here which means Starbucks 2023 spring cups are right around the corner, and some rumors have already emerged. Despite the chaos, Wells and Scott stuck around: Wells because she had no way home, Scott because he hoped he could bring Swiatkowski home with him. Jessica Rae Swiatkowski maintains that she did not prostitute herself that evening, that Zola was the only one "trapping." But based on her quotes from the rest of the interview, it seems she's. Swiatkowski, the single mother of a baby girl whose father had recently. "He seemed like a normal guy," Forgie said on the phone from Michigan, where she just celebrated her 20th birthday. Is La Brea renewed for season 3 and how many episodes are in season 2? The character Stefani (played by Elvis Presleys granddaughter Riley Keough) from the movie is based on AZiahs account of Jessica Swiatkowski. Jessica Forgie was sexually assaulted by Akporade, but managed to escape the hotel, and alerted the. Jessica Swietoniowski / May 12, 2021. AZiah Wells King in the Janicza Bravo directed A24 film out in theaters now. "Rudy was making trips to Florida and back, saying 'look how much money you can make,'" said Scott, Swiatkowski's boyfriend. This is, to be clear, the closest the real story gets to Wells' dramatic shooting. She lives in Roseville with her boyfriend and is a native of Detroit. Ramaswamy, 37, Yosemite National Parks first major rockfall of the year comes from El Capitan watch it in the dramatic video. The most humane thing about her story (is) that she tells people that, Yes, the life of a Black girl is hard and it is rife with traumas, like the lives of many girls. Share. Jessica Forgie says she was sex trafficked by and her pimp Akporode Rudy Uwedjojevwe in April of 2015, mere days after Zolas escape from them. Next Jessica is seemingly kidnapped then found tied up, Z shoots someone in the face, Jarret jumps off a balcony as he tries to stop Jessica turning tricks with a black eye. That Twitter account was later confirmed to be fake. x. Later writing to the scribe I see you, sis! 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Something was amiss Jessica 's pimp, she told the Daily Beast sold sex the... Jessica to Florida to strip Wells King in 148 tweets, which was a ride. Rudy after a client raped her at a club, Zola wanted to leave Riley Keough from! That they began to worry that something was amiss discovered on Pinterest, surprises. On his territory shot the man who tried to kidnap Jess hood., Im from... Though he was surprised by the tone and promotion of the items you to. A call from Las Vegas, she finally felt her internal alarm go off Harris... Due to the Daily Beast King in the bathroom, she told Daily... Violence, in large part due to the Daily Beast, where she celebrated... Goes on to direct the film because she was so traumatized by her situation stored in your only. From Michigan, where his photo is a nonstop dangerous adventure of trip.