What can teens do to help stop sexual violence? You can do a lot! And while you may think that your opinions don't matter - we're here to tell you that they do! In fact, both TEENesteem magazine and the Xpose CD are the products of teen involvement and feedback. So don't give up! Get movin' and make it happen. For you possess the power within to accomplish positive social change. Here are some things you can do to be part of the movement to end sexual violence:

Use Your Voice and Be Heard!
Write It Down and Send It Off
Get Involved and Enjoy the Journey
Help Your Allies!

Use Your Voice and Be Heard!
Speak out against sexual violence, challenge crude jokes and sexist comments, confront attitudes that perpetuate victim-blaming myths that are so commonly and wrongly leveled against sexual assault victims. When a sexual assault happens within your community and the victim gets the blame, be a voice that holds the perpetrator accountable. Call your community leaders, state representatives and members of Congress and offer information that helps our leaders to not only see the problem but to understand it. Ask them what they are doing to address the issue of sexual violence and make our communities safer. Educate your family, friends and classmates about sexual violence - help them understand that this is not just a "women's" issue - it's a human issue!

Write It Down and Send It Off
Write a letter to the editor of your school or community newspaper to raise awareness of sexual violence, challenge attitudes, and express support for its victims. Write your legislators at the local, state and national levels. Ask them to remember victims of sexual violence in their decision-making and urge them to commit additional resources to ensure that victims of this horrific crime get the services they deserve. Write an article for your school newspaper on sexual violence. To enhance our efforts, interview or survey the attitudes held by your classmates and report your findings along with a little or a lot of education, depending upon what your hear.

Get Involved and Enjoy the Journey
Organize a rally and include a speaker and/or a band. Include an "open mic" so that those in attendance can voice their opinions, read poetry, sing, etc. (Your local rape crisis center can be an excellent resource for you!) Contact your local rape crisis center (listed in the 'Blue Pages' of the telephone book under Crisis Intervention) and find out about volunteer opportunities. In addition to clerical support (help with mailings, etc.) and help with fund raisers, many offer youth-oriented opportunities (peer educators, focus groups, task forces, etc.) and can rape crisis centers benefit from your involvement and ideas as they seek to enhance services to teens, the age group most vulnerable to sexual violence.

Organize a Chalk Walk Day at your school (make sure you get the principal's permission!). Cover your school's sidewalk with messages and statistics that raise awareness of sexual violence and call for ending it.

Help your Allies!
See something outrageous? Have a great idea that can encourage other teens to take a stand against sexual violence? Share your stories and ideas with us at and we will add to our list so that other teens can become involved in ending sexual violence. We can then all take pride and part in changing our culture for generations to come!

In case you don't have the definition of sexual violence, here it is:
Sexual violence occurs anytime a person is forced, coerced and/or manipulated into unwanted sexual activity. The continuum of sexual violence includes rape, statutory rape, date and acquaintance rape, incest, child sexual assault, sexual exploitation and sexual harassment, among other acts.