Real stories from girls who found comfort and connection with Nestling
*The names and identifying details in these stories have been changed to protect privacy, but the experiences and impact are real.
leah
“For the first time I felt like I was not the only one.”
Leah was used to pretending.
When people asked about her family, she’d change the subject, say she was boarding, or make up a story she’d rehearsed. “I couldn’t handle the looks,” she says. “The confusion. The pity. It was easier to just say something that sounded normal.”
At the time, she truly believed she was the only Orthodox Jewish girl her age going through this. The only one without a family to go home to, navigating everything — Shabbos, school, life — on her own.
She didn’t ask for help — but her school counselor noticed. She suggested that Leah get in touch with Nestling.
“I was nervous the whole way to my first event,” she admits. “But the second I walked in, I saw girls who looked like me — laughing, talking, just being together. And when I started hearing their stories... I couldn’t believe it. They actually understood. I wasn’t the only one.”
That moment shifted something in her. She didn’t have to pretend anymore.
Now, Leah keeps in touch with other Nestling girls through a WhatsApp group. They check in during the week, go to events together, and sometimes spend Shabbos at the same table. “My life feels so different since there are people who really get it. Whenever I have a bad day, I always have someone to turn to.”
rachel
“They helped me find a home when I had nowhere to go.”
Rachel had been bouncing between temporary places for months — sleeping on couches, in spare rooms, wherever someone would take her. She was used to keeping a bag half-packed, just in case.
But when her latest arrangement fell through with barely any warning, she had nowhere to go.
“I had maybe three days to figure it out,” Rachel says. “I kept replaying it in my head: Where am I going to sleep? What if I end up on the street? I had no family to call. No backup plan.”
Thankfully, she found her way to Nestling.
“When I reached out, I wasn’t expecting much,” she admits. “I thought they’d send me a list of phone numbers and leave it at that.”
Instead, within hours, someone from Nestling was on the phone with her, walking her through real options. They helped her find a safe place to stay, checked in daily, and connected her with a mentor who could help her figure out the next steps.
“They didn’t just hand me information and disappear. They stuck with me. They helped me think through things — where I could live, what I wanted to do next, how to breathe through it all. I honestly don't know where I'd be without them. Probably still living out of a duffel bag — or sleeping in my car. Instead, I have stable housing and can focus fully on graduating. Nestling basically gave me my life."
Sarah
“They brought light to my life when everything felt dark.”
Sarah was sitting alone on her couch on the first night of Chanukah. She lit the menorah, whispered the brachos, and tried to hold it together — but the tears came anyway. Her apartment was so silent, she could hear them fall onto her lap, leaving dark little spots on the fabric.
“I felt so alone that night,” Sarah recalls. “I had no one around me. No one to smile at, no one to sing with.”
She reached for a tissue and noticed the box tucked under her small table — a package from Nestling she’d left there earlier that week. With the candles flickering in front of her and the ache sitting heavy in her chest, she tore off the paper.
Inside was a beautifully wrapped Chanukah gift and a personal note.
“Every single night, I would sit there by myself and open that night’s package,” Sarah says. “The gifts were thoughtful and sweet — really beautiful. But more than that, they reminded me I wasn’t forgotten. Someone had thought about me. Someone wanted me to feel cared for. And I did. Those packages were the only thing that gave me light during those eight nights.”