When I was writing my high school memoir in 2008, I wanted to...

When I was writing my high school memoir in 2008, I wanted to include the story of a survived assault and the aftermath that followed— my fear in speaking up because of threats and the false and hurtful stories he spread— but a female at the publishing house told me it “wasn’t original enough.” She said it was a story that “every girl has lived to some degree,” that we’ve all heard it, and that for those reasons we should leave it out. But it happened to me. It impacted me. And if so many other women—and men— have experienced the same thing, shouldn’t we be talking about it more, not less? So I fought to keep it in. What they ultimately published was a watered down version. Years later that boy— then a grown man— cornered me at a reunion and asked if he was the one in the book. He just didn’t know “what the fuss was about” and hoped I would be “over it by now.” Thank you to everyone who speaks up and out and who uses your voice so that others don’t have theirs taken away. Thank you to all the brave and beautiful souls who are out there fighting.