My name is Aleesha Barlow, creator of the Tell Somebody Movement, and I am a survivor of child sexual abuse. 

As a child, my mother would drop me off at her parent’s house to be babysat.

When my grandmother would leave, my grandfather would take me into a room and touch my private parts.

My parents never taught me about my body, so I didn’t know this was wrong.

He also told me that this was our secret, and not to tell anybody.

When I was six, I told my aunt. My aunt told my mother, and together they confronted their father.

He admitted it, and said the Devil made him do it.

He told them he would kill himself before going to jail, so my aunt gave him a Bible and told him to read it every day.

I was told to keep it a secret from the police, and my dad.

They promised the abuse would stop, but I was still left with him and the abuse continued.

It took me 20 years to tell my dad, but I had an immediate weight lifted when I did, and I want all survivors to feel that!