Women are tweeting their experiences of being sexually harassed during childhood
LONDON -- Women are sharing their experiences of sexism, sexual harassment, sexual violence and discrimination they went through as minors using the #WhenIWas hashtag.
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The hashtag was started by the EverydaySexism project, which called on women to reveal how young they were when they first experienced sexism and sexual harassment.
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Alarmingly, some women have relayed accounts of sexual harassment occurring when they were just 6 and 8 years old.
Hundreds of women have shared their experiences using the hashtag -- from accounts of sexual assaults to catcalling and harassment -- and their disturbing accounts highlight just how early on sexual harassment begins.
This comes after the government announced an inquiry into sexual violence and harassment in schools; an issue which the EverydaySexism project feels has been "overlooked for too long".
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"Many people are shocked and unaware that sexual harassment, violence, discrimination and abuse start from an extremely young age," wrote EverydaySexism on Twitter.
The tweets range from experiences of sexual assault:
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To sexual harassment from adults....
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Some women mentioned that they had not been believed when they attempted to report being sexually harassed.
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Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
