The response to sexual harassment claims against Hollywood Mogul Harvey Weinstein has led to millions of women posting the simple yet powerful phrase “me too.”
One of the biggest frustrations surrounding the Weinstein scandal is that no one spoke up for decades. It was just swept under the carpet, but not anymore.
Sexual harassment and assault are not easy topics to talk about and the story I’m about to tell may not be something you want children in the room to hear.
As a journalist, I’ve covered many stories about sexual assault but there’s one I will never forget — couldn’t forget it if I tried.
It’s a story about a girl who I believe is nothing short of inspirational.
At just 4 years old, her father died and she was sent to stay with her aunt and uncle. She remembers being excited to get on a plane and spend the summer in Colorado playing with her cousins — she really looked up to those two older boys. She couldn’t wait for the fun they would have, but there was nothing fun, for her, in the basement of their house.
You see, that’s where her 16-year-old cousin first took her to touch her. He made her do things in exchange for candy he kept high on a shelf that she was too little to reach. She doesn’t remember how many times it happened but to this day her stomach turns when she smells a musty room.
When she finally returned home to her mother at the end of summer, she stayed silent. Obeying her promise to him to tell no one.
Luckily, it wasn’t long before her cousin confessed. He came forward that year and told his family what he had done to her and other children.
But what the girl didn’t know at the time was that she was not alone in this life. Her mother was abused, too, and her grandmother before that.
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