An exotic dancer's Twitter odyssey is now a feature film

Two women facing each other in a strip club

Like many of you, I was enthralled by #TheStory. Unfolding over the course of 148 tweets, this was a batshit crazy first-person account of an epic saga between a black woman dancer named "Zola" (our fearless narrator) and a skinny white girl Hooters customer named Jessica who invites her on a road trip to work a club in Florida. There are a multitude of morals that emerge during this story, but the first one might be the most important: "Don't get into a car with strangers". Insanity ensues. According to this Rolling Stone article, some of the original story, like Jarret's suicide attempt, were embellished, but many of the key elements – a brutal pimp, a tormented boyfriend, gaslighting, kidnapping, sex trafficking – remain tragic, wild, and true. And has now been adapted into a new film, written and directed by Janicza Bravo.