It has been six years since I founded Lauren’s Kids. At the time, I was in my early 20’s, still transitioning from child sexual abuse victim to survivor. I knew that I needed to use my experience, awful as it was, to create positive change for others.
Since then, I have written a memoir to share my story with other survivors and let them know that It’s Okay to Tell, walked the state three times with advocates and abuse survivors, fought for legislative changes to better protect children and help survivors and created an abuse prevention curriculum called Safer, Smarter Kids that has been distributed to every public school kindergarten classroom in the state. Through all this, I have truly become a thriving survivor of childhood sexual abuse.
Over the years at the helm of Lauren’s Kids, I have often likened the journey we go through from victim to survivor to that of a butterfly. Maya Angelou said, “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve such beauty.”
None of this would have been possible without you—your support, love, funding, encouragement. It is with this thought in mind that I proudly present our new Lauren’s Kids logo. Our organization has grown since its inception, and so have I. Like every victim of sexual abuse, a piece of myself, my heart, my childhood, is missing — stolen from me by my abuser. While I will never be able to recover that piece, I now see that it has undergone a transformation of healing to become something new. It has become something beautiful and full of life and love.
I present this logo as a symbol of hope and an encouragement for victims to embrace the hard work of healing. It is possible, and you are not alone…but we still have much to do!
Enjoy our new look and help us keep moving forward. Your first step? Sign the petition to end the exploitation of children here.
