Documentary opened doors for Katrina Gilbert, she still struggles, but now she has hope

January 18, 2015 at 1:00 a.m. | Updated January 18, 2015 at 7:16 a.m.

by Kevin Hardy

Katrina Gilbert, center, sorts through food that her children brought home from school while in the living room of their Ooltewah residence. Gilbert and her family starred in the HBO documentary "Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert," which attempted to tell the story of the nation's impoverished women. The children are, from left, Brooklynn Gilbert, 9; Trent Gilbert, 5; and Lydia Gilbert, 7.
Katrina Gilbert, center, sorts through food that her children brought home from school while in the living room of their Ooltewah residence. Gilbert and her family starred in the HBO documentary "Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert," which attempted to tell the story of the nation's impoverished women. The children are, from left, Brooklynn Gilbert, 9; Trent Gilbert, 5; and Lydia Gilbert, 7.

Katrina Gilbert teeters between two worlds.

In one, she flies to Los Angeles first class, stays at the Four Seasons and attends the Emmy Awards. In the other, she pays for her groceries with food stamps, worries about how to get rid of the mold in her kids' bedrooms and is buried under medical bills.

A lot has changed for Gilbert since she appeared in the HBO documentary, "Paycheck to Paycheck: the Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert," which debuted in March 2014.

But a lot has remained constant.

Through Gilbert, the film told the story of the 18 million adult American women living in poverty.

In the film, Gilbert, a mother of three young children, struggles to pay for medical tests, groceries and other household needs while earning $9.49

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