You can't pick your parents, but you can pick your lover, even if it'll piss your parents off. High school senior Allie Dowdle learned that terrible lesson recently when her parents, after seeing a picture of Allie's black boyfriend Michael, were not happy.

Allie explained what happened on GoFundMe, saying she'd "never forget the yelling my parents did, when they expressed how disappointed they were in me, that I could do so much better. I did not know what to do. I couldn’t comprehend how someone could be seen as less because of pigment." This didn't deter Allie and Michael keeping their relationship on the low, but after Michael tried to reason with Allie's parents face-to-face around Christmas, they totally cut Allie off, stripping her of access to her savings account, her car, phone, and most importantly forcing her to pay for her college tuition on her own.

Allie's father spoke with the New York Daily News, saying that their actions were more about Allie and Michael (who is apparently former Philadelphia Union player and current Clemson University student Michael Swift, according to Heavy) dating secretly, flat out saying "it was never about race." He went on to say they didn't approve of Michael or her last boyfriend, and they decided to take this route because "it became obvious that she needed to go out in the world and grow up."

Thanks to the internet and sites like GoFundMe, though, her dreams of higher education won't be cut short like her future relationship with her family might end up being.

On Jan. 11, Allie set up a GoFundMe, explaining her story and asking for $10,000 to help pay for school. "I've applied and received some scholarship money through financial aid, including grants, loans, and work-study, but I still need at least $10,000 to cover the first year of my remaining out of pocket tuition for college by May 1st," Allie says. "I've been applying for scholarships and have tried to get a job," she continued, "but I am still living under my parents' roof because I have nowhere else to live, and my dad has done everything in his power to make the world difficult for me. I am not able to get a job because I do not have consistent transportation available."

The internet saw how fucked this situation is, and in one day's time, she received over $13,600 for her college tuition. Her GoFundMe has raised more than $35,000 in total.

Now, whether you believe that her parents jumped off the deep end because of the race of her boyfriend or because they felt she needed to "grow up," the fact of the matter is that Dowdle now has the funds to, at the very least, get her first year of college sorted out. Good luck to her.