To the 15 Year Old Child from Abilene, TX. The one in the video. The one being hurt. 

I saw you.
I heard you.
I couldn’t look away.

I needed to watch, not for shock or curiosity, but because I knew what it felt like to be the one no one protected. I was 15 too when the people who were supposed to love me instead let their hands say otherwise. Maybe I wasn’t the easiest teenager. Maybe I had an attitude, questions, dreams too big for the walls I lived in. I didn’t deserve the bruises. Neither do you.

Those screams you let out, they weren’t just yours. They were mine once. They’ve been the screams of countless kids like us. I’m sorry. I am so, so sorry that you had to be one of us.

But now, you stand at a fork in the road, the lines lead two ways. I know that sounds cliché but I promise it’s real. This moment, as unfair and incredibly painful as it is, can become the beginning of something powerful. Something full of purpose.

I don’t know what’s ahead for you, but I do know this: people will open their homes. They’ll try to help. Some will love you deeply. Some will mean well but not fully understand. Some will be temporary. Some will stay. While they each may play a role in your story, you get to choose who you become.

You are not what they did to you.
You are not the video.
You are not shame.
You are not a lost cause.

You are a beginning.

❤️🙏🏼My encouragement to you, please, let your healing be your rebellion. Go to therapy. Find a hobby that makes you feel alive, I draw now but I have painted, written music, ran 5K’s, and even published books. Use EDUCATION like a flashlight in the dark. Build a future you’re proud of, even if no one taught you how. I am here if you need someone to mentor you! Stand at that line and make the choice to create a better future!

Please, don’t get lost in the noise of social media or the ignorance of people who only see the surface. Their opinions don’t matter. Their cruelty says more about their lack of education and empathy than it does about you.

What happened to you is not okay. But you? You are going to be more than okay, you are going to be unstoppable. One day, if you want, you’ll be the one who writes a letter like this to another kid, because you’ll know what it’s like to overcome.

You are not alone. I love you. I promise I do. If we can hate in this world for no reason at all, I assure you, we can also love without reason. You are not alone.

Love,
Stephanie Ellison
Someone who made it out, and knows you can too.