Scarleteen All Growed Up: Emily

Scarleteen has been helping young people for twenty years. Some come for simple questions about contraception, some need reassurance about relationships and some need an inclusive space where they know they can be who they when their own world is not so accepting. Then there is another category of young people, the ones who literally have nowhere else to turn, who live in situations we all don't like to think young people endure and Scarleteen is there for them.

I was in that last category. I found Scarleteen when I was a teenager and dealing with things that sadly are not rare but so very hard when you are stuck in the middle of them. As a kid who was abused for many years I felt so much shame and so much confusion about what was happening to me. Scarleteen was my saving grace. I could go there and ask the hardest questions and Heather and the volunteers would always help me. I felt immense relief knowing that they believed me, that they could offer me advice and that somewhere in the world someone cared.

Scarleteen helps young people like I was day after day and with the same amount of respect and compassion they showed me every time. For those young people Scarleteen is a life saver, its a place of real safety when life is otherwise unpredictable and scary.

I could never really put into words what Scarleteen did for me during those years but I can say that I honestly don't know where I would be had I not had Scarleteen when I needed them.

So many young people also need that, More now than ever and Scarleteen needs your support too. Please help Scarleteen to help young people the way they helped me, help them be that place of safety.