I grew up in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, where pretty much nothing exciting ever happened, but my family and I felt safe for the most part. However, even at a young age, I was worried about my safety, and the safety of my best friend in our own neighborhood. We lived down the street from each other in a condo complex so we walked to and from the bus stop together when we were in middle school. Our neighborhood was maintained by landscaping companies, and so there would often be older males walking all around the neighborhood mowing lawns, trimming hedges, etc.

I can distinctly remember one day when my friend and I were walking home, not too far from getting to her house, when one of these men and his co-worker started following us in their truck. They had said something to us but we ignored them and kept walking. When we realized they were trailing us in their car, we took off running through the buildings to get away from them. It was so long ago that I don’t remember too many details about that event, however I do remember a look of satisfied enjoyment those men had because they realized how scared and uncomfortable they made us feel.

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

I don’t think there is a simple way to make public places feel safe for everyone. What needs to happen as quickly as possible is the incorporation of healthy and safe relationships among all human beings throughout all years that students are in school. This needs to become not only education but practice by all people, it needs to become a part of our culture in entire nation and I believe it starts by all adults correcting children and teens whenever they are acting in disrespectful ways towards anyone, not just adults. I work at a high school and the things I hear, coming especially from the male students and said to the girl students quite frankly are appalling and outright degrading. Sometimes so much so that I am dumbfounded and miss my opportunity to speak up, however I am working on becoming more proactive because of how important and impacting it can be.

– Anonymous

Location: Prospect Heights, IL

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

I was going to buy a school bag at the Githurai Market in Nairobi. I was attempting to quickly cross the busy road, but unfortunately there were too many buses alongside the road standing too close and there wasn’t enough space to go through. Then this man approached me and in Swahili told me to cross through the bus. I told him I was fine but instead he roughly held my hand and I became so scared. He wanted to drag me, I quickly struggled and when he saw people watching us he released my hand. I fled quickly looking behind watching if he was following me. I didn’t get to buy the bag that day.

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

I think if we have advocates for street safety that would really help. Also involving and making people aware that this is actually a problem and not dismiss it.

– Wamboi W

Location: Githurai, Nairobi, Kenya

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

Today, I went downtown to get some work shoes, and was followed down the street by a hulking, paunchy, sweaty white man in a full gangster getup. He started walking alongside me, trying to talk to me. I couldn’t hear him, because I had my headphones in, but I told him, “Not interested.” He then followed me for another block, yelling. I still couldn’t fully hear him, because of my music, but I could hear incoherent yelling. I did catch a few phrases like, “You think you’re too cool for nothing, bitch!” and other classy, intelligent discourse.

Eventually, after I didn’t turn around, and tried to walk like my height was a weapon (sometimes this works), he started shouting, “Sorry! Sorry! I was rude!” I still didn’t look at him, because that half-assed apology was a little late, and I just wanted to get out of there. He ended up getting on a bus, and I kept walking, my heart pounding, because that could have easily escalated, and he was much, much bigger than me.

Nobody on the (crowded) street intervened, or checked to see if I was okay after. I ended up abandoning my errand, and just going home, feeling totally defeated.

– Rebecca

Location: Granville and W Georgia St. in Vancouver, Canada

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

When I was a junior in college at the University of Cincinnati, I had a lots of friends who lived on Ohio Street. One day on a weekend in the morning I was walking down the street from my car to a friend’s apartment when some men leaned out a window of a large house and called at me. I ignored them. No response. They called me a bitch and threw an old flatscreen TV (the heavy kind with a large bulb and black plastic housing) out of the window at me. It landed mere feet in front of me. If I had been walking faster or if they had thrown it more to their left then it would have probably killed me or at the very least rendered me disabled or paralyzed for the rest of my life. It shattered into pieces at my feet. Without thinking I burst into a sprint and ran to my friend’s house and called the cops and filed a report. The experience was incredibly disturbing.

But it wasn’t the only time.

Once a van attempted to kidnap me on a one way street. The door flung open and they tried to grab me. So I walked the “wrong” way. The van flung into reverse, despite being on a one way street, and pursued me. I never got caught but the experience was mortifying. I had an apartment in a gated community for additional safety.

Honestly, I get cat calls maybe once a week. It never fails to shake my sense of safety and make me feel paranoid like I’m being chased. I feel threatened. I feel a lack of security. There’s nothing like feeling threatened the minute you walk out of your house. I have two 60 lb dogs and people think I’m crazy. It’s literally the only way I can go out in public and feel safe when my husband isn’t with me. I’m a white woman in my early 30’s. I can only imagine what other women experience.

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

Emergency Phones, Ample lighting

– Anonymous

Location: Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Savannah, NYC, Chicago, Italy, OKC, Seattle, Everywhere I go

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.