In my opinion, if you want this to change, if you want to help spare the next girl, then speak out. Take a picture of the outfit you had on and show it to your principal, the vice principal, the school counselor. Take it all the way up to the superintendent of the district if you have to. If you have social media, use it as a way to spread the word that you were subject to a massive case of hypocrisy and you’re not standing for it. The best way to create change and help others be spared from instances like this is making these instances known far and wide.

Ignorance is so often the reason for lack of forward momentum in the world, and we’re lucky enough to be born in the age of technology. We have platforms—like my little corner of the web—to speak out or vent or inspire. It’s up to us how we choose to use them. And it’s refreshing to see girls speaking out for change, outnumbering the amount of filtered Snaps.

We’re all we’ve got to create change for the future. The people in authority now? They’ll be long gone and we’ll be stuck with problems we helped create if we don’t speak out.

So that’s my advice to you.

Make the injustice known.

And perhaps, your voice will be enough to stop the hypocrisy in its tracks!

Keep me posted.

In the meantime,

Stay Sexy. Stay Healthy.

…

A little of the rage from earlier snaked out of my blood as I hit publish.

I’d selected the question specifically because of Dean and my conversation after Code Club. It had been in my starred file for a week, and it was time I addressed it. Especially when everything had hit me so hard tonight.

Dean’s words about the blog—calling it dangerous.

Hannah’s punishment for being caught on the site.

It was all gnawing at me, but the people I’d already helped…that was what soothed those hurts. I wouldn’t leave them in the dark.

But I had thought long and hard about what Dean had said and was considering putting a disclaimer on the site. Explaining about the heat coming down on the blog, and how it could also transfer to those who dared to write in. Full disclosure—I’d always told them I’d never lie to them. Save for my true identity. And the fact that I was a virgin issuing sex advice and beyond.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to ease the pressure building behind my eyes.

I’d started this blog with the intention of flipping off Tanner’s personal vendetta.

It had transformed into something so much bigger now. Something that not even my BFF getting in trouble over could stop me from continuing.

That notion was terrifying enough, but I held strong to my hope.