For a long time, we were afraid.
We were afraid of the dark, we were afraid of the unknown,
we were afraid of our past and what it meant for our future.
Alone, isolated, yet exposed to the world,
we knew there were others like us out there, yet we were scared to confront their pain
because of what they understood about our pain.
Last year we all took a bold step to overcome the fears about ourselves, to band together to become a force for change.
To speak for all those who cannot speak for themselves.
To make the invisible visible.
To make the two dimensional three dimensional.
We are the Phoenix 11.
Sexually abused as children, reduced to child sex abuse images, and stripped of our dignity and humanity,
we have risen together as powerful young women who are retaking our identities and self-worth.
No longer content to live in the shadows, we are redefining what it means to be victims
who were powerless to stop the relentless onslaught of the technology of abuse.
We are survivors of sexual torture, child rape, erotic photoshoots, pedophile sleepovers,
elementary school sex shows, streaming BDSM, and twisted sexual desires
whose digital images are trafficked worldwide to fulfill the endless needs
of an evil perverted community which takes pleasure from our pain.
Now we are putting the world on notice that we will no longer be a silent suffering collage of young girls and boys
whose nameless and often faceless images and videos circulate worldwide on the internet cesspool of humanity.