Emily Lindin

In today's world we throw around words carelessly at one another, not thinking about the effects our words take on a person.   Once a girl or young woman is labeled as a ‘slut’, she remains one in the eyes of her peers. “You cannot be a slut and a brilliant academic whose work is changing the world for the better. You cannot be a slut and a loyal friend who will listen for hours over a cup of tea. [...] and a good mother who is raising kind, thoughtful children.” (Lindin) Emily Lindin, the founder of the UnSlut project and director of Slut the documentary film was 11 when she had her first boyfriend. At the time he told the whole school she was sexually active with multiple guys. This didn’t only spread around school but to parents. Her friends created websites by the name of ¨dieEmilyLindin¨ and she had no one to talk about her experience with. She was later sexually harassed and bullied by her peers. Because of the rumors going around about her,  teachers didn’t bother trying to stop it. At times, harassment got so bad, she deeply considered committing suicide. When you are treated and affected the way she was at such a young age, you feel responsible to bring an end to it.  Lindin put herself in their places realizing she must stand up to this type of bullying or else more girls would be taking their lives each year for a problem that should be long gone from now.   A hero must possess kindness, courage, bravery and selflessness. Emily Lindin possesses all of these traits. She willingly put herself on the line in front of millions by sharing her story to several interviews and hundreds of cameras as well as eyes upon her writings Her courage and selflessness encouraged her to ignore anyone wanting to hate and only recognize love and support. Lindin created a documentary to show it’s not just a harmless word that women overexaggerate about, It is a word that is demoting, depressing, and in some cases deadly. Emily Lindin also possesses change and courage therefore proving her worthy of being a hero. Emily noticed there was a recurring issue leading to more teen suicides every year. She strived to be the change and create a foundation called the UnSlut project focusing on working  towards the end of using the word as an insult and objectifying people as it. She had the courage to publish her diaries she wrote as a teen to online  bookstores which contain personal stories from when it first happened to when she considered her death multiple times.

Lindin's diaries and documentary has motivated and encouraged more girls to stand up to slut-shaming and know their voice is heardfollownews.comEmily Lindin was dramatically changed as a young child and fights to help assure this doesn’t happen as often as it does by being the change she only wished to see as a kid. Emily Lindin struggled with her experience and had no one to talk to about it,  so she wanted to do something about it for future victims; “At the time I hadn't felt comfortable confiding in my parents or other adults. I would have loved to be able to access an online community of women who had survived what I was going through. That's why I decided to share my own diary entries and encourage other women to share their stories”(How sexual bullying ruined my life). When Emily Lindin was growing up she didn’t have anyone to talk to about her experiences even though she needed someone to be there for her. She realized this was a huge problem by the rate of suicides of teenage girls being bullied for their labels, and knew something had to happen and if it wasn’t her who knew who and when it would it be. She decided to take charge and create a project to let girls write about their experiences and talk to other victims of the same abuse. It provides an outlet for those struggling to feel comfortable talking to anyone else and prevents actions that we would regret later. Growing up with such harsh titles against you can make you feel isolated and ashamed, but Lindin “ [c]hose to publish her own middle school diaries online in response to learning about the suicides of several teen girls who had experienced similar [...]shaming and bullying, and a strong desire to reach out to others who still suffer such abuse” (Gaetano).When no one was there for Emily as a teenager, she often felt isolated and alone. She took a choice and a risk by putting her personal diaries on the internet for everyone to see so those struggling to find hope can have someone to look up to and say that it’ll get better. For some, they are at an age if they confess to what has happened to them, they might only get bashed for “asking for it” or “engaging it”. Even though we are all aware of this consistent problem, it seems  Emily Lindin is one of the only people who has stood up and taken a step towards the end of this atrocious word. Now more than ever we need more role models like Emily Lindin to be there for us when we are knocked down by our peers and instead of judging us, encourage us to strive for success and not let a label determine our futures. All the girls coping in silence determined Lindin to end the hate others seem to spread around by acknowledging what some people try to avoid.

Emily Lindin is now a motivational speaker to educate people on sexual bullying and harassment towards womenfoxnews.comEmily Lindin encourages and influences anyone and everyone who has gone through the same traumatic experiences she has growing up. We can easily change a big problem by ”[B]asically, acknowledge that she is a human being with many qualities. You don’t have to like them all. In fact, you don’t have to like anything about her. But if you really must insult her,[...]If it really is just a word, surely you can come up with a better one’’( ‘slut’ isn’t just a word ).Emily Lindin hopes to encourage those those who have watched her documentary, interviews or listen to her podcasts to stop using the word  to cut down strong women who may be affected more than anticipated. She encourages  people turn to something else to call girls they feel deserve that label. Lindin knows girls have consisting drama and will call each other negative names. She knows she can’t change this entirely, but she does hope to make people realize that they have other words to use that may not make someone hate their life or themselves because of what someone else says about them. Most of us don’t take action towards this type of bullying because we think it’ll go away and it’s not a big deal but in some cases we see this isn’t always true; “I was [...] assaulted by Roman, and my mom called the police. And almost immediately we were in a snowball of publicity. For me it was the adults and media who were doing the slut shaming.”(UnSlut: a documentary film). Emily Lindin wasn’t the one assaulted by Roman Polanski, but one of the women on the documentary film was. It wasn’t by someone her age or someone she was going out with and  spread around or created rumors about her, She was a 13 year old girl who had been taken advantage of at a young age and the media was doing the bashing  instead of supporting her.  Lindin uses this story to illustrate how sexual assault can take shape in all different sorts of forms. By doing this she is showing whatever may happen to you, it isn't your fault and she will continue to encourage and influence girls to stand up to your abuser and not let them take all the power away from you. Show them you have a voice, you have power and they will no longer control you. By doing this she is showing us,  whatever might have happened to you, it isn't your fault and it will continue to encourage and influence girls to stand up to your abuser and not let them take all the power away from you. Though we might try to ignore this type of bullying, Lindin has an objective to end this kind of bullying by talking about this type of abuse on live television, her books, documentary film, and by encouraging victims to step forward about their abuse for everyone to be aware. Lindin is truly an inspiration for all teenage girls and women struggling to stay positive and not give up by encouraging the public to minimize if not completely eliminate  sexual bullying and harassment towards girls to end teenage suicides and distortion of one’s own life.

She has published her diaries she wrote as a young girl during the time she was shamed and harassed at school citypaper.comLindin decided to take charge and end what traumatized her as a kid by creating a project and website allowing victims to communicate with each other and put their stories on the internet kickstarter.comLindin is a heroic figure because she has a goal to end something truly horrific we all know is happening but tend to ignore. She is someone who identified a problem based on her own experience and felt there was something that someone could do to end it. The awful truth is exactly this... We are so sensitive towards certain words so we all try to ignore it and it’s traumatic toll on a person. Emily Lindin is a true inspiration to others and myself because she stands up for women by identifying a social problem most of us try to ignore. She is the proud voice for thousands of victims and survivors out there who don’t have a platform for their voice to be heard from. Lindin uses her own experience to pave the way to a friendly and normal conversation with others by illustrating how bullying and harassment takes its identity in all different forms. Lindin put herself in the eyes and judgment of others multiple times, She shared her traumatic experience as a child by deliberately putting her diaries on the internet for anyone to read. By doing this she made herself entirely vulnerable to all sorts of hate just so people  going through the same trauma she went through make it out alive. She cares for everyone, even people she doesn’t know because she has been in their shoes and knows how hard it can be to receive only hate and violence from those you thought were your friends. She influences all women to not let their past be their future and not be disgraced or ashamed of being themselves .  If I learned anything from Emily Lindin it’s that we cannot end hate entirely, but we can spread, support, and encourage each other to not let our voices be silenced but only be the start to something new.