In 2012, Emmy Award-winning director Tani Ikeda (opens in new tab) founded Survivor Love Letter (opens in new tab), a movement for sexual assault survivors and their compatriots to publicly celebrate their lives. In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Marie Claire partnered with the organization to create a Survivor Love Letter from Tarana Burke (opens in new tab), founder of the Me Too movement, and Amanda Nguyen (opens in new tab), founder of Rise, with artist Brittany Harris ( Open in new tab), along with a special illustration of the girls by artist Brittany Harris (open in new tab). Read Burke's love letter to Survivor below and Nguyen's love letter to her younger self here (opens in new tab). The Survivor Love Letter invites you to write a message, whether you are a survivor or an ally, and share it using the hashtag #SurvivorLoveLetter. For more information.

Dear Survivor

Keeping hope alive is a resilience strategy I return to again and again. Holding on to hope in the face of white supremacy, patriarchy, and oppression is a very bold thing to do.

The Me Too movement (open in new tab) is driven primarily by hope. If we cannot have hope that it is possible to end sexual violence, if we cannot have hope that we can change the material lives of black people, if we cannot have hope that marginalized people cannot have justice, then we will have nothing to aim for.

My greatest hope with Me Too is that people will understand that this is healing and action. This is both for the sake of those who said "Me Too" and to prevent others from coming forward and saying "Me Too" in the future. We built this movement on the backs of those who have been insulted and dehumanized. But in order for us to be on the front lines, to testify before legislators, to tell our stories, we need healing. To heal, we must have the strength to hope that our work to end sexual violence is possible.

I have heard many bad stories from survivors of all walks of life. But the flip side is this: we can't wait for the stories to catch up with us. We cannot wait for white people to decide that our trauma is central and worthy of being told. We know that there are those who are devastating our communities; we know that there are those who are not. Nevertheless, we must remain unwaveringly committed to ourselves as survivors and a movement. The moment we have a clear vision and know that we are on the right side of history, we can keep moving forward.

-Tarana Burke

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, RAINN (opens in new tab) - the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization - offers 24/7, confidential support. call 800-656-4673 or use this organization's s online chat tool (opens in new tab) to speak with a trained staff member.