These are the stories of girls you know.

Girls like the ones you grew up with, hung out with, shared a meal with. Girls like a friend of mine who, during a birthday party, told me of the abuse she had suffered, abuse that was so traumatic she buried it away for years. I sat next to her as she spoke, listening to her pain and feeling her strength. I realized she was a hero whose story I hadn’t heard before. The experience of telling her story seemed to help my friend and so I decided to help other girls like her by giving them a voice, a platform to tell their stories.

There are a lot of reasons why girls don’t report abuse or speak about it: some fear they will be judged, others want to avoid the pity of strangers. Many also worry they might hurt their families if they speak out about what was done to them.