©️ By Sophie Lewis | The Grooming Files | The Indie Leaks | @realtalkrealtea

I didn’t realise how important this work was until the messages started coming.

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Not just likes, not comments — but real voices. Real people. Survivors who found the courage to reach out, and say: “I haven’t told anyone this before…”

And then they told me.
And I listened.
And everything changed.

Every single day, I hear stories that would crush most people.
Stories full of silence, shame, grief, confusion, rage.
Stories that don’t just stay on the screen — they land in your chest. In your bones. In your blood.
They live there.

But what moves me most… is you.
The ones who carry that pain and still somehow get up the next day.
The ones who were failed by everyone — and still found the strength to speak.
You don’t even realise how powerful you are.
You have no idea what it means to keep living with that kind of weight and still choose to speak, to trust, to fight.

That’s not weakness.
That’s otherworldly strength.

And here’s the part that wrecks me the most…
I’ve crossed paths with many of you before.
Years ago. As kids. As teens. As strangers in the same town, the same school, the same system.

I always knew you were special. I just didn’t know it would be this that brought us back together.

I didn’t know that we’d be connecting through our pain, our fire, our refusal to stay silent.
But somehow — through this twisted, broken system — we found each other again. And now? We’re speaking out together. Standing together. Healing together.

And I need you to know this:

If your voice shakes — I will hold it steady.
If your story hurts — I will carry it gently.
If your soul is tired — I will sit with you in the dark until the light comes back.

You are not alone.

I will carry that pain that’s too heavy right now.
I will walk beside you when you face those demons.
I will hold your hand when you look those bastards in the eye and reclaim your power — every last shard of it.

Because you’re not just a survivor.

You’re a firestarter.
A truth-bearer.
A record-keeper of everything they tried to bury.

And so am I.

This space — our space — is sacred.
It’s for us.
For the ones who weren’t protected.
For the ones who were silenced.
For the ones who were labelled “trouble” when really, we were just traumatised.
For the ones who are still out there, not yet ready to speak — but watching, waiting, hoping.

We see you.
We hear you.
We are you.

And when you’re ready — we’ll be right here, holding the line.

This isn’t just activism. This is soul work.
This is memory work.
This is ancestral healing on a generational wound.

So to every single person who’s trusted me with their story:

I honour you. I hold you. I walk beside you.

We’re not victims anymore.
We’re the mirror.
We’re the megaphone.
We’re the reckoning.

And we’re not done yet.

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