Dear Dr. Christine Blasey Ford:

We are fifteen-year-old girls. Fifteen. The same age you were when seventeen-year-old Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you, when he put his hand over your mouth so no one could hear you scream. We imagine you at that party, so young and vivacious, with your whole life ahead of you, and we see ourselves. Our hearts break for the fifteen-year-old girl who walked in, and how different that girl was who walked out. We feel connected to the 15-year-old girl still living inside of you, and are outraged by the seventeen-year-old boy still living inside of him. At seventeen he felt entitled to your body; to use, to hurt, to silence. That seventeen-year-old boy is now a nominee for a life-long appointment as a Supreme Court Justice.

We know the possibility of Kavanaugh being in a powerful position has made it necessary to speak up. We know how scary that must feel—and we know you are probably tired of people feeling things for you. We hope you will take this chance to make your voice heard, to speak on your own terms, in your own way. We hope you will do this for yourself and for other fifteen-year-old girls. You never deserved this

You speaking up is powerful. We can’t trust Kavanaugh to make decisions that will impact girls. He has not been accountable for the sexual assault. We realize the effects of what happened are impacting him as it has impacted you, only he has not been living with the consequences. He denies it ever happened.

Being fifteen should never be traumatic. Fun for boys should never include exploiting girls. When you are fifteen you should be worried about physics classes, not whether or not you are going to be sexually assaulted.  

Now is a courageous time and a brave time, too, to finally let your voice be heard. Telling your truth will get us one step closer to the world we want to live into; one where seventeen-year-old boys are taught that it is not ok to exploit girls and that fifteen-year-old girls know their bodies are their own.

You are strong and the fifteen-year-old girl in you is strong. We are with you and so is everyone who signs this letter. 

Layla, 15; Charlotte, 15; Jessica, 15