By Darcel Rockett
Chicago Tribune
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Tawanda “Tee” Marie Hanible’s 40-year story is laid out in her first book, “The Warrior Code: 11 Principles to Unleash the Bada– Inside of You.” Throughout its pages, she gives readers tips and worksheets for navigating and overcoming personal struggles.
Chicago
Tawanda “Tee” Marie Hanible proudly lists the things that she is: a woman, a mother, a daughter, a philanthropist, a Marine, a survivor, and nobody’s hero. But she also self-identifies with the moniker “bada–.”
A product of the foster care system, after her father was killed on a South Side street, Hanible came of age in Chicago and endured growing pains that included expulsion from school, becoming pregnant as a teen (and having a subsequent abortion), getting shot while hanging out with friends, and enrolling in a military reform school before joining the Marines.
Hanible’s 40-year story is laid out in her first book, “The Warrior Code: 11 Principles to Unleash the Bada– Inside of You.” Throughout its pages, she gives readers tips and worksheets for navigating and overcoming personal struggles.
Hanible, now living in Fredericksburg, Va., powered through her travails to lead a life of service, first as a Marine gunnery sergeant and now as a founder of nonprofit Operation Heroes Connect, which pairs at-risk young people with service members and veterans as mentors. Along the way, the mother of two tried her hand at reality TV (Fox’s “American Grit”) and won a number of awards for her volunteer efforts.
