This may be very, very triggering for some people so if you get triggered by street harassment I would suggest you don’t read this.

One time I was walking down the street in a summer dress to get some bread and happened to be smiling – I remember a man in a car started yelling at me about my smile.

Another time I was walking to the tube station in a cardigan and leggings when a van pulled up beside me. I was in a nice middle-class area where people often have work done so I assumed the driver was working there and kept walking.

The van kept following me – no big deal, the driver might be going to some other place. The van pulled up besides some other workers and the driver motioned to me to get in as I passed them. I assumed he was talking to the other workers but no, he kept following me – even when I turned a corner, at which point I was getting quite terrified. The driver pulled up on the far side of the road and motioned to me to get in again. At that point I walked far more quickly into the tube station and fortunately nothing came of that.

Both times I was 16  years old.

– Anonymous

Location: Hendon, London, UK

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As a young woman, sexual harasment is something I’ve been experiencing since I was very young. Most girls experience it around the age they hit puberty, which is mostly around the age of 12/13 years old. Well, for me, I hit puberty at a very young age, my breasts started to grow and my hips got wider when I was 7/8 years old. My sister experienced the exact same progress going on in her body growing so fast, we got both send to the doctors but they couldn’t find anything. We were exceptions in this case. But there we sat at school, as mini-women who didn’t liked their changing bodies at all.

I didn’t get harassed on the streets back then, but at school. The other kids noticed I had growing breasts; they made fun of me by groping them multiple times or calling me ‘Big Boobs.’ Not only boys would make fun of me, girls would do the same thing. Laughing behind my back with it, gossiping around it (there was this one gossip going around back then that I would have gone to the doctors and had surgery to make sure they wouldn’t grow any bigger anymore) and also groping my breasts as well.

I felt absolutely horrible about having breasts and wide hips at such a young age. Being a 7/8 year old, I should have been enjoying childhood, not having to worry about puberty, and I didn’t feel like a child anymore. And the bullying went on and became worse every year. At the end of Elementary school I didn’t experience harassment anymore since the other girls of my class had grown a good pair of breasts and wide hips themselves, I didn’t felt alone anymore, however- the years there for where a hell to go through.

Once, a girl who was a bit younger than me, got her brother and his friend to insult me and they groped my breasts, walking away laughing, how they liked insulting me with doing such a horrible thing. I went to the director’s office to tell him what happened; a lot of people had seen what was going on, I couldn’t be lying. The man reacted shocked and told me it was absolutely unacceptable for those kids to do something like that to me. But has he ever punished them for what they did to me? No. Did the kids get punished for groping my breasts, laughing in my face for it? No. I didn’t tell my teachers what was going on, but I’m sure they secretly knew I was getting bullied because I was becoming a woman. No one did ever interfere when some kid groped one of my breasts again at the playground. One time the teacher used me as an example to say why I couldn’t breastfeed yet because a boy in my class said: ‘Sophie has breasts, that means she can feed a baby already!’ Why use me as an example for a subject like this?

I also remember the times we went to the swimming pool and I got a lot of stares from kids from other schools. My classmates didn’t ask about it after a while; they were used to it by then. But kids from other schools got curious, they stared at me, pointed fingers at me, laughed with it, you name it. I always hided my breasts behind my arms until I got into the swimming pool, once I got out of the water, they got hidden again.

I will never forget the day my period once came though on a school day, I was 9 years old. Every Friday we went to the swimming pool for swimming class, unfortunately my period came earlier than expected, making me forced not to go swim anymore. Everytime I couldn’t go swim I said to my classmates that I wasn’t feeling well, they didn’t got suspicious since they didn’t knew what menstruation meant. But this time, I was in tears because I looked forward to go swimming and I was in complete shock that my period had come this early. But it was a few months later and one of them knew what it was. The guy told everyone I had my period, in just a few minutes the whole school was aware of my little ‘problem down there’. Then people asked me what a period was, people stared at me, and whispered while I walked by, giving insults, you name it. All that because that ‘time of the month’ came too early for me.

Around the age of 11/12 years old the honking, catcalling, etc from strangers started. The stories about all the street harassment I endured during the years is too much to sum all up, but it made me feel even more horrible about my body and myself. I didn’t understand, I wasn’t provoking anything, I was a child who didn’t wanted this at all. I never asked for this sort of attention, not as a little girl and not as a young woman!

Is this the price I had to pay to be a woman? Breasts getting groped by other kids, gossip going around about me, getting nicknames like ‘Big Boobies’, etc. I had to endure all that because I hit puberty earlier than all the other kids, because I was becoming a woman, and apparently I needed to get punished, as I still get punished by men for walking down the street. I only just realized ever since the sexual harassment-stories are coming up I’ve been sexually harassed ever since I was a little girl.

I wish I could send this story to all the kids who bullied and groped me back then and let them think of all the horrible things they did to me and that they are no better than the men who still honk at me down the streets. Hopefully they became better human beings than they were back then. I really do.

-Sophie

Location: Belgium

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My boyfriend and I were out in Charlotte’s NoDA district, walking to the car after dinner. Someone behind us started calling out, “Hey baby” and a few other things, then he asked something like, “Is that your girl” to my boyfriend.

I turned around angrily to face him. He approached, told me his name and some other crap I don’t remember, and asked me my name. I told him that I don’t give out my name, and that I was trying (emphasis on trying) to enjoy a night out with my boyfriend. I had a pretty strong sense that he would respect that I had a boyfriend more than he would respect that I on my own was not interested in him, and aside from that, I wanted to have a nice night out with my partner, and he was ruining our good time.

As expected, he respected that I had a boyfriend more than he acknowledged that what he did was harassment. He shook my boyfriend’s hand, said a few things, and left.

I’ve also submitted this story to Hollaback and my personal blog, because the last thing I want is to be silent about this. Harassment is not okay and it’s not a compliment.

– Anonymous

Location: Charlotte North Carolina, NoDA District

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I was pulling money out of the ATM at a Bank of America, and a young man in his late teens or early twenties calls out, “Give me that juicy bootie, girl.”

– Veronica Rojas Munoz

Location: Hollywood, CA

Donate to help fund a national study on street harassment.

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Dear Stop Street Harassment Supporters,

Every day I comb the news and social media for information about street harassment, and I often find inspiration from other countries, like Egypt and Yemen.

Both Egypt and Yemen have had national studies on street harassment (83% and 99% of women experienced it, respectively) and activists are successfully using the statistics to galvanize the media, the public and their governments to support anti-harassment initiatives. Just Monday, the Egyptian Prime Minister said a new law against street harassment was in the works.

Rampant Problem
The USA does not have a national study yet and no national government officials are addressing the issue. From stories shared online, however, we know that street harassment is a rampant problem in the USA. Women are evaluated by strangers, masturbated at, rubbed against, told to smile, asked if they want a boyfriend if they’re in public alone, told to do sexual acts, and sexually assaulted. New research shows it’s a problem most men who are gay or bisexual experience. Transgender individuals face some of the most violent forms of harassment – including murder.

We need national statistics to help us better understand the issue and to prove to policy-makers, law enforcement, and educators that this is a serious issue that must be addressed. We also need statistics to help us craft new policies. My master’s program in public policy included a course on statistics and that’s because it’s often stories + statistics + public support that = policy changes.

Donate Today to Fund a Study
Stop Street Harassment is now a 501c3 organization. Up to this point, I have self-funded all of the work of SSH. But now I am asking for YOUR help. Please donate today so that the USA can have its own nationally representative study. (Learn more about the survey.) The survey firm I plan to use is very reputable and in my day job at AAUW, we used them for a 2011 national study on sexual harassment in schools, which the white house recently called a “gold standard” for studying the topic.

While I have sent out letters of inquiry for a few grants, most places specify “no research” for what they’ll fund, so I am very reliant on the donations of people like you. The Razoo campaign ends in one week, so please donate today. (Scroll down to see what you get for donating and to learn how the data will be used.)

Thank you for all of your support,
Holly Kearl
SSH Founder

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What You Get for Donating: $10-$75:  You name will be listed on the SSH website, included in the research report, and I will send you a personal thank you post card in the mail. $76- $99: You will get everything listed above and I will send you a signed copy of the book Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women (only if you want a copy!) $100 or more: You will get everything listed above and I will also send you SSH swag (scroll down)		How the Study Data Will Be Used: The study findings will be published in a research report. There will be a media strategy to spread the information widely. Any group or person who cares about ending street harassment will be able to use the findings to support why their program/view point/initiative is valid and needed. SSH will use the findings to craft programming, inform campaigns, and propose new policies, trainings for transit workers and police, and educational curriculum for colleges. I also hope the data will help SSH get grants to do all of those programs!!!