Erin Merryn: The Guardian Angel

WIU social work alumna Erin Merryn was recently recognized as a 2012 “Woman of the Year” by Glamour.com for her personal crusade to educate children about sexual abuse prevention. “I’m really scared,” reads a passage from Erin Merryn’s diary, written when she was just 11 years old. “Something happened last night, but I don’t know who to tell.” The untellable secret: She’d been molested by an older cousin. Time and again he preyed on her at family gatherings—locking her in closets, bathrooms, basements. Shockingly, it wasn’t the first time Merryn had endured such horrors; from the ages of six to eight, she’d been molested and raped by a friend’s uncle. But when her younger sister revealed that she, too, had been a victim of their cousin’s abuse, Merryn decided it was time to tell their parents. Then, after years of graphic flashbacks and even a suicide attempt, “it just hit me that I did nothing wrong,” she says. “I didn’t need to be ashamed.” READ MORE HERE