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September 13th, 2024

I was 11

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It was the summer before 7th grade, I had been living with my biological dad, his wife, her daughter and my brother for about 2 years. Home life was not great, I continuously body shamed as I looked “like a woman” early in life, blamed for things that I had...
July 10th, 2019

So drunk I can’t remember

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I was turning 18. I was partying like any teen would. I drank a lot. I threw up, sat down. They picked me up and put me in their car. They said “don’t worry we’ll take care of you. You won’t miss the bus”. I remember lying on the bed...
May 25th, 2019

The Trauma That Made Me

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I was raised in a broken home in a broken home from a pretty young age. Not young enough that it’s all I ever knew, but young enough that visitation schedules were a steady part of my life. I am the oldest of my parent’s 3 children, but my dad...
November 27th, 2024

I know when I see a rapist...

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The stalking, gaslighting, victimizing, and of course sexual abuse, were never okay with me. But you just don’t get that because you’re a predator.
April 3rd, 2023

He was 56

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Dear Jr, This for you if I happen to leave before whoever and you’re able to read this message. Jr, I looked up to you as that father figure when Daddy became ill and you the only person out the meeting that decided to take all three of us in....
May 8th, 2019

I didn’t even know what was happening

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I say I didnt know what was happening and I mean that, now I do, but at the age of 7 those things aren’t programmed into our brains. We don’t learn in preschool what sexual assault or rape is. We were on vacation in Mexico and my parents went out...
March 10th, 2020

Raped by my step fathers

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First time I can remember is when I was 5 or 6 years old. My mom left that step father and I told her what happened and she said why didn’t I tell her. She remarried and that man also raped me. My mom actually walked in on it when...
June 27th, 2019

Survivor of child molestation and date rape

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I grew up in a family that was great at keeping secrets. I remembered bits and pieces of a night when my parents had gone out and left my two brothers and I with a male adult. Nothing came about with these brief memories until I was at university and...
November 15th, 2020

J’avais 13 ans

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J’avais 13 ans j’étais allé avec mon amie chez un gars pour la soirée ils étaient trois gars et c’etait la première fois que je buvais de l’alcool et ce gars qui s’appelle pascal m’a agressé. Je ne l’ai dis a personne et j’ai fait comme si rien ne s’était...
March 20th, 2021

Molested by my brother as a child

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I was just 14 years old. He was 20. I did not know what to do when he touched me. I wanted him to stop but I was too afraid to say anything. I just froze. He continued to touch me inappropriately for a year. It became worse with each...
May 23rd, 2021

Rape in my locked home

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I have been raped numerous times in homes that are locked. I am divorced and live alone. Obviously drugged as no memories. The first time in my locked home after my divorce when I broke up with someone who admitted after dating him for months that he used to do...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

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My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasn’t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
June 8th, 2023

Unethical or illegal?

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Last year my partner and I worked for the same business. It was a small business near a small town and it had no management or HR of any sort – only one man owned and ran it, even though it served thousands of people each year. I hit it...
March 17th, 2023

Indigo

I returned to fine art in 1990 when I took at class in indigo dyeing at San Francisco State University. I was lucky that the instructor, Yoshiko Wada, and another student from her class, were in the East Bay so that we could carpool together. We would talk textiles on our weekly journey across the Bay Bridge to the Campus. The other student was an accomplished Quilter named Linda MacDonald. Linda lived in Willits near the famous Mendocino Art Center, but traveled to Berkeley to attend this class once a week. The Indigo vat was made in a 32-gallon garbage can and had to be kept covered between dyeing sessions. Indigo is a unique rich blue dye that develops with an oxidization process when exposed to air. Dipping the fabric several times, and allowing the natural fiber to oxidize before dipping it again, creates darker shades of blue. The dye in the vat is created from a mixture of indigo pigment, various chemicals and a reducing agent to remove oxygen from the dye. It is a rich green color while in the vat, which shows up on the fabric before it is fully exposed to the air. The smell emitted from the dye is unusual, a musky odor in my mind. I like to think that it smells like the color blue. The vat needs to be carefully stirred and maintained between dyeing sessions. There is a “bloom” on the top of the vat created by oxidized indigo, making a bubbly and shiny ball of material reminiscent of a flower. The “bloom” gets moved to the side before entry of the pre-wetted fabric. The process reminds me of baking bread or making yogurt where the steps need to be carefully followed to achieve the desired results. In the process of bread and yogurt making, there are living cultures involved in order to create the product, and with the creation and dyeing process of indigo, it has that same feeling of being alive. In order to create interesting patterns, my classmates and I would use resist techniques on the fabric like pastes, stitching and clamping. Simple household items like clothespins could be used to create patterns by folding and then placing the pins at intervals along the fold lines. Beautiful and surprising results were achieved using these methods. Image of Indigo dye on fabric during the oxidization process. My dream of being a professional artist, all started in early childhood, and the first memories of my creations go back to Nursery School. I loved playing with all kinds of materials, like paint, clay, and crayons, just to name a few examples. Mel (Melanie), painting at Jack and Jill Nursery School, Walnut Creek, California, 1960. In 1974, a neighbor in Marin where I was living at the time and studying art at College of Marin told me about an Art School in Mexico. I ended up sending off slides of my work with an application to the Instituto Allende, and was delighted to hear that I was accepted. I began my journey to study there in San Miguel de Allende by flying to Mexico City in January of 1975. A bus ride completed that journey. When I first arrived, I moved in with a family who had two small children, including a newborn. It seemed like a safe living situation for a 19-year-old woman, but that shortly proved to not be true when the husband started coming on to me. I ended up finding my own place on the other side of town. It was a spacious abode with a wall that was shared with a weaving factory next door. There were 2 adjoined bedrooms, a bathroom, a large living/kitchen area and a small concrete patio out the back door. There was no hot water, refrigerator or a telephone. When I needed hot water for dishes, I would boil some on the stove. For showers, I had to build a fire in a box below a water tank outside to get hot water. I felt much more secure living there and walking a further distance to the Instituto on the other side of town than living with the husband who had made me feel so unsafe. There was the Central Plaza, which was called the “Jardin” that was in the middle of town, and I would pass through it on my walk quite frequently. This was the site of fireworks and festivals, like the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. The streets were cobblestone and many charming shops and galleries were located downtown. The School itself was on a beautiful campus with large ornate doors in front that were closed when school was not in session. Photo of the closed front doors of the Instituto Allende I had heard about you and what you had done to other women before you appeared in my main living space one sunny spring afternoon pointing a gun at me. You had a bandana wrapped around your face and tied behind your head. I had heard you first, in the bathroom. Dressed in a long polyester dress with colorful psychedelic patterns. I wasn’t wearing any underwear or shoes. I walked through the 2 bedrooms and turned left when I saw you standing there. I screamed and shouted, “help me,” thinking that workers at the Weaving Factory would hear me and come rescue me. Nobody came. You said to me “Coyote” which I later learned meant to be quiet or to shut up. You grabbed my shoulders and dragged me out the unlocked back door onto the concrete patio. The tops of my feet got scraped. I gave up. I knew you were going to rape me. I just wanted you to finish as quickly as possible. You took off your belt and put down your gun. Somehow I managed to pick up your gun and threw it over the wall embedded with glass on the top, into the alleyway. The same wall you had climbed over to get into my place through the unlocked back door. Towards the end of this ordeal, I heard a knock on my door. You left, climbing back over the wall. I answered the door. My friend Rhonda had come by to visit me. I told her what had happened and we walked to the Police Station nearby. I had your belt with me. The one you left behind. I went to the front counter, telling the officers behind the counter what had happened to me. They were laughing and playing cards at the time. I showed them your belt. They told me to bring you in if I saw you again. I left with Rhonda and took a bath at the where place she lived. We didn’t talk about what happened. We moved in together shortly after that. I sent a telegram to my father and stepmother about what had happened to me. Nobody came to help me. Rhonda helped me when I got hepatitis A and could no longer go to school. I was on my own when it came to figuring out how to return to the Bay Area. I moved in with my father and stepmother. They didn’t talk to me about what happened to me. They sent me to a doctor who diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes. He showed me how to give myself insulin injections. He told me to practice by injecting oranges with empty syringes. My mother told me years later that “You were never the same again” after what you did to me. I survived. I gave up art for 15 years before realizing that I wanted to go back to art school. In those years, I became so disturbed that I had panic attacks, deep depression and needed to move in with my mother at age 30. I started therapy after becoming self destructive in my 20’s. Depression also called “the blues” has been my long time companion. It has taken me a lifetime to heal. My iPhone predicts the words, depression, PTSD and C-PTSD for my text messages. After my Indigo dyeing class at San Francisco State, I enrolled in the Textiles Fine Art program at California College of Arts and Crafts (now known as California College of the Arts) in Oakland. I was married at the time and had become pregnant with our daughter Emily right before classes started in September. Emily was born on May 13, 1991. By the Fall of 1992, I was a single mom and an art student. An inheritance from my mother who died in 1995, allowed me to graduate and to buy my first home. I continued to work with indigo dyeing and created a large textile piece about my experience in Mexico. After many years of therapy and other healing modalities, I recently started painting on canvas. Part of that process has been a Soul Retrieval session to bring back my 4 year old self who loved to paint. I am feeling uplifted and encouraged after many years of recurring periods of severe emotional pain. Stay tuned for more details about my new work. One of my final pieces was a textile called “Out of the Blues.”
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I returned to fine art in 1990 when I took at class in indigo dyeing at San Francisco State University. I was lucky that the instructor, Yoshiko Wada, and another student from her class, were in the East Bay so that we could carpool together. We would talk textiles on...
September 8th, 2021

Raped by ex boyfriend

1
This is really hard hard for me because I haven’t really explained this to anyone but here I go. I was raped by a guy I knew when I was 14. I don’t remember much because we drank a lot one day and I only remember getting dropped off home....
September 18th, 2019

Raped in the Air Force

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My first duty stationed 28 years ago, i was sexually assaulted by my first supervisor and violently raped by an officer in my unit. The violence of that raped, ruined me for a long time. Suffer from severe PTSD and after 31 years i am being forced out of the...
May 20th, 2019

The Diaper in the Corner

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Most of us know the saying by Darshan Mondkar, “‘Was it really my fault?’ asked the short skirt. ‘No. It happened with me too.’ replied the burkha. The diaper in the corner couldn’t speak.” Out of these, I relate the most to the diaper as I had just stopped wearing...
May 8th, 2019

Spoke out and was blamed

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I am the only girl at a job of 4 men. I am also 20 while these men are 40+. One worker would grab me from behind when I would walk in the back to the bathroom. This would happen often. One day all my coworkers had to go outside...
April 9th, 2019

A Message from the Director

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September 28th, 2019

I Didn’t Know I Was Raped

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Grass stains on my back and blood in my jeans I gain consciousness while my body is jerked like a rag doll My eyes focus on the hazy streetlights as I try to make sense of my surroundings I hear his zipper as he’s walking away So, I pull up...
April 21st, 2021

A respectable collegue

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The next day I walked down the stairs to the hotel, aware that he was sitting at the table having breakfast. Some things you think would never happen to you, you think that working externally with a colleague (married and with children) is not dangerous. But then in a moment...
June 11th, 2025

Just Words

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Just words. You have trouble talking about these things. You realize you have trouble talking about a lot of things. You remember being excited about your first job at Dairy Queen. One of your friends works there and you know a lot of people work there as a summer job....
December 26th, 2019

Ms.

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I was raped by a co-worker when I was in my mid-20’s. We were at a work function, we were all drinking, then about 10 of us went to his place to continue the party. He grabbed me on my way out of the washroom and dragged me into his...
December 10th, 2019

Raped by stranger x2

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In my 2nd rape when I was 20 yrs old, I went into shock during and after the assault. Afterwards, my body shook for hours, but I tried to act normal in front of people. I felt like I was dreaming – everything and everyone seemed unreal. But, I also...
July 7th, 2025

Pretty Girls

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Was it my fault for being born pretty? Has it always been an invitation for men make me do things to get them off? Was it the reason my uncle taught me to look him in the eye while I choked myself on him and try my best to keep...
December 5th, 2020

Summer 2019

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I got my first job working at a lovely Mediterranean restaurant/cafe one summer because my teacher said she knew the man who ran the place and put in a reference for me. I was 15. He was in his 60s. Two days after I started, the groping began. Only he...
May 24th, 2019

The Statistics that Changed Me

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2 sexual assaults and 1 rape… the statistics of my story. I can’t promise that this story is pleasant, but I can tell you that power and growth comes with telling it. So sincerely, thank you for hearing me out. October 2017 I was in Chebut, Argentina(a part of the...
May 31st, 2023

I loved my job

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We were on a work conference. I was sleeping. You climbed onto me and touched me. I woke up as soon as your hands touched my bare skin, my pyjamas pushed out of the way. Your girlfriend’s necklace – I had mentioned the night before to deflect your advances, it...
June 24th, 2020

Too naïve

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I was 16. I had my first job, a lifeguard. I was so excited. I have been a swimmer since I was 5 so this was a very fitting job for me. I was the youngest person working there by far. Most of the kids were in college and one...
February 8th, 2021

Sexually abused by my step brothers

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I have lesbian parents. My mum and dad were never together and me and my mum lived alone until I was 3, she met a lady, who is now my step mum, and they got engaged and we moved in when I was 6. She had 2 sons, one aged...
July 24th, 2019

LOST

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When I was 5 years old, I was sexually assaulted by many men. The next day I tried to kill myself. At the age of 10, I was raped and again tried to end it by ending my life. I also am a survivor of FASD and there for not...
September 8th, 2019

Frozen in fear

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I thank you for your story. I have kept silent about all my traumas for most of my life. In the last 2 years I have started my healing journey and still have a hard time sharing with anyone but my therapist. I mostly have shamed myself because of how...
November 19th, 2023

I was very dumb.

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I doubt many people have gone through this, but I wanted to share. I was 9 years old when it was my first time visiting Omegle. Immature and stupid of me, I know. I just wanted to meet new friends. I had already learned about sex and peoples bodies from...
May 24th, 2019

The Statistics that Changed Me

2
2 sexual assaults and 1 rape… the statistics of my story. I can’t promise that this story is pleasant, but I can tell you that power and growth comes with telling it. So sincerely, thank you for hearing me out. October 2017 I was in Chebut, Argentina(a part of the...
May 28th, 2019

You were supposed to be my friend

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This is letter is to you. You were my friend… my best friend. You knew what your dad did to me, yet you looked the other way and pretended like nothing had happened, like nothing was wrong. I was just a little girl, in my eyes, I was. I mean,...
July 24th, 2019

LOST

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When I was 5 years old, I was sexually assaulted by many men. The next day I tried to kill myself. At the age of 10, I was raped and again tried to end it by ending my life. I also am a survivor of FASD and there for not...
August 16th, 2020

Does the pain ever go away?

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I really don’t know how to write this but I do want to try. I’ve been reading these stories for a while and have wanted to write my own but every time I try it’s too hard to actually put words down… I don’t know why this keeps happening. Every...
April 9th, 2020

People don’t think your spouse can rape...

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6 months ago my husband forced me to have sex with him because it was his birthday and he deserved it. Even after repeatedly telling him no, I was forced to comply with his request. I felt dirty after that. Like my marriage had been deviled. I went into a...
May 29th, 2025

random rape

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when I was 16 years old I was raped and held at knife point, by a random person in apartment complex, I was walking around with my Friends at the time they got ahead of me so I took a seat a porch and my shoe fell of in this...
March 20th, 2016

45 Years of Being the Victim

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By 4 the molestation began by my younger brothers father…I told nobody..by 8 it was still happening…I remember being so afraid that when I was asked..I denied it..what hurt the most is believing my mother knew..this molestation continued until he raped me at 11..afraid alone and in a new state...
June 24th, 2020

Too naïve

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I was 16. I had my first job, a lifeguard. I was so excited. I have been a swimmer since I was 5 so this was a very fitting job for me. I was the youngest person working there by far. Most of the kids were in college and one...
July 16th, 2020

Mental Breakdown

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My life’s a mess at 19, but I don’t like complaining to people (friends + family) because I don’t want to burden someone else with my problems, and to be honest nobody really cares like that, I don’t want to project myself as this ‘weak abused girl’ so later on...
October 3rd, 2024

Asking for advice

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So the most strange thing happened last night . I was with my school on a 5 day trip . It was to Italy with a boat . I hadn’t slept all night at the boat because I am scared of water . I didn’t sleep the whole day because...
October 22nd, 2020

My Life Destroyed in 5 Minutes

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I have been trying to write this out for a long time Let me first introduce myself and my community My name is Rachel and I live in a very strict austere religious community We go to separate genders schools from the age of 3 We aren’t allowed to touch...
May 8th, 2021

He was 28

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I met online a 27/28-year-old man. We talked online about two months and met two times. The first time we met, we went on for a long walk. I don’t remember if we talked or not. I kept a knife with me because I didn’t trust him. After the walk...
May 4th, 2019

Shedding the Shame of Adolescent Peer Sexual...

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For years, it ate away at me inside. Disgusted in myself for not being more forceful, for not standing my ground. Ashamed, believing it was my fault because, well, I was part of it. I knew it was wrong for an adult to harm or exploit a child but never...
April 11th, 2020

This is my story

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When I was 12 years old, my mother’s partner at the time who I called dad who had raised me for the past 5-8 years decided he would rape me multiple times until I was 15, until I told my mother. She supported me in every way imaginable and made...
May 6th, 2022

My Ongoing Journey

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When I finally decided to switch my major to psychology and now pursue my career as a therapist, I got a lot of questions. Things like, why do you want to be a therapist? I got this from family, friends, and even strangers back in the time I served tables....
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

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My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasn’t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
October 15th, 2022

Male dancer

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Hello my Name is Tj. This happen about 4 years ago I was 19 years old at very young age I always tried to see the good in people. I was always happy and felt nothing could break me down went threw cancer as a baby lost my brother and...
April 1st, 2021

Sex doll

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After work one night I was drugged by a co-worker. I woke up in his bed naked. He was not in the room. I felt 2 emotions very heavily and immediately. Shame and wrong. I remember looking around for my clothes in a panic. I don’t remember how I got...
October 15th, 2020

Wide awake

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I was 7 when I met him, he was my sisters softball coach. After a while I started to enjoy softball too so decided to join. Then he started to invite me over with him daughter my age, at first we only hung out for like a hour. Then his...
June 18th, 2019

My best friends dad

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April 27th 2018. Two weeks prior to this incident I was in Longleaf psychiatric facility. I took over 300 pills cuz I didn’t want to be alive anymore but little did I know the worst was yet to come. Ironically when I decided to take all the pills I called...
July 19th, 2021

Child sexual abuse

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My child’s father has been sexually abusing her since she was 3 months old.
August 30th, 2019

My story growing up with a secret

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I’m a black South African, I’m 40 years old now, and my son it 20 years old… loved, taught but I still can never live him alone with my nieces as I was left alone and violeted💔💔😭😭 I have spoken about this, but I hate putting this down in writting😭😭...
July 10th, 2019

So drunk I can’t remember

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I was turning 18. I was partying like any teen would. I drank a lot. I threw up, sat down. They picked me up and put me in their car. They said “don’t worry we’ll take care of you. You won’t miss the bus”. I remember lying on the bed...
April 27th, 2019

Everyone Else Likes You, Too

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I had never been to a bar before. Sure, I’d gone out to Applebees with other coworkers where they’d serve me drinks. But I was 19, and had to drive home. I had never been drunk before, and didn’t push my limits. I went to the bar to see him...
April 11th, 2020

Childhood sexual abuse

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It started when I was a toddler. My mom hit me for something I did. I went to school the next day and my teacher called the police because I had a big mark on my back. Yy mom was arrested and cps was going to get me but my...
April 24th, 2019

It was just a vacation

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When I was 12 I went on vacation with my grandparents and my brother who was 14 at the time. This was supposed to be a month long adventure of visiting family and having fun however I couldn’t have been more wrong. My brother and I were sharing a room...
September 26th, 2019

my story

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It felt like I was reliving the moments over and over again, I couldn’t withdraw myself from them feelings and having no closure for nearly four years was the most painful experiences of my childhood. There was no growing up with a picture perfect family, I was the outcast. Never...
October 13th, 2022

i was 5 , 12 , 13...

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When i was 5 , i vividly remember things that happened around that age. Of course no one looked at the signs or acknowledged it and that only made it worse. I don’t remember who touched me first to make my behavior that way but this is what i remember....
October 12th, 2023

Workplace Sexual Harassment

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As I write this story to you, please note that this sexual harassment case is still in progress. It began in December of 2022 when I worked as a contractor for a company named TEKsystems. I do IT work for Nutrien Ag Solutions. The first week I was there, I...
July 25th, 2023

Older

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When I was 16, I was introduced to a 24 year old retired marine who has had a very difficult life. We became friends first and I wanted to help him through his breakup and fix his depression. We then started dating. A few months into the relationship, after I...
November 2nd, 2019

Ms

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I was 21 years old. I had moved into a flat with my first boyfriend Pete and his best friend, Paul and his pregnant girlfriend Gerry. Pete and Paul were friends from being in the army together. They were both 26 years old. Paul was also my first cousin. I...
April 15th, 2019

Too Trusting

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I was raped by a mutual friend. My night started off at a housewarming party for my best friend. She went to sleep, but I decided to go out with a couple girl friends and some guys they knew. I didn’t know the decision would change my life forever. We...
July 24th, 2019

LOST

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When I was 5 years old, I was sexually assaulted by many men. The next day I tried to kill myself. At the age of 10, I was raped and again tried to end it by ending my life. I also am a survivor of FASD and there for not...
February 2nd, 2022

It wasn’t your fault

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It Wasn’t Your Fault The mere fact of being born a woman is enough to place you in a sort of danger for your entire life. Society still makes sure to place you there, and more importantly, to make you believe it is only your fault. And while I did...
June 18th, 2025

Glitter Girl, Gone.

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HE picked me up the first day in the shiniest white Toyota I’d ever seen. Hallucinating halos of light around him, I knew in my heart: this was the man I would marry. Almost 15 years older, but so handsome, so experienced. We seemed to have everything in common—intellectual passions...
January 18th, 2021

Finally Arrested

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https://myfox8.com/news/lexington-man-charged-with-indecent-liberties-with-a-minor/ One if the men who molested me was finally arrested… I never told on him but one strong child did! Thank you child, I am sorry I didn’t report this when I should have. You are brave!