Lauren Book is an inspiration. That is how Scott Monnett, president and chief professional officer of Alachua County’s Boys and Girls Club, describes her.“To take what she went through as a child and to turn that into a cause and a mission — it just completely moved me,” Monnett said.
For six years, Book was a victim of childhood sexual abuse by her female nanny. The traumatic experience motivated her to make a difference, and leading her to found the organization Lauren’s Kids in 2007. One in three girls and one in five boys will endure sexual abuse before the age of 18. This statistic is the driving force behind the organization and its mission to educate children on sexual abuse by encouraging discussion on what some consider a “taboo” topic.
“When I came out with my story, I felt completely alone and as though no one could understand what I was going through,” Book said. “I also felt like I was in quicksand and wondered if I was ever going to heal from the years of trauma I had endured.”
That feeling of isolation inspired Book to live up to her name, documenting her experience in none other than a book.
“I wrote ‘It’s OK to Tell’ to let other survivors know they are not alone, they need not be afraid or ashamed and that the scars people cannot see can become the toughest parts of us,” Book said.
She has also written a second book, “Lauren’s Kingdom,” which serves to educate teachers, parents and caregivers on how to start a conversation with their kids.
Earlier this year, Book visited the Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County as a part of her sixth annual 1,500-mile Walk in My Shoes movement. The walk, which extends from Key West to Tallahassee, serves to raise awareness of childhood sexual abuse and advocate for legislative change. During Book’s stop in Gainesville, a young girl from the Boys and Girls Club took action upon hearing Book’s message. Following the event, the child went home and revealed to her mother that she was being molested by her stepfather.
“We got through to at least one child, and she took the message that ‘it’s OK to tell’ to heart,” Book said.
This is just a single incidence of how Book’s story and her willingness to share it can have such an immediate impact on children and young adults everywhere. With one event, she reached one person — one person who would have otherwise most likely continued along her path of silence and pain.
“That’s what it’s all about, and that’s why I do what I do,” she said.
Book has also impacted Alachua County’s Boys and Girls Club in a much broader sense.
“Just through this one event, the work she has done has become part of our curriculum,” Monnett said. “If we continue to share that message with our kids, it will only resonate and continue to grow.”
In addition to raising awareness and prompting legislative change, Book also wishes to impart a sense of healing among the victims. In the United States, there are approximately 42 million victims of childhood sexual abuse. Book hopes these victims will follow her lead by moving forward, thus making the transition from victim to survivor to thriver.
“I will not rest until it does not hurt to be a child because all too often, it does,” Book said. “This means work in prevention, in education, in awareness and rooting these things in smart, strong, strategic and systemic policy change that allows us to truly move the needle and inform the kind of culture shift that I know to be possible.”
SOPHIA KARNEGIS is a third-year public relations student at the University of Florida. She currently works as an intern at Advantage Publishing and enjoys learning the ins and outs of the editorial process. In her free time, she reminisces about her home in Miami and the love she left behind — a black and white miniature schnauzer named Oreo.