- Hi, there.
My name's Kate.
I wanted to see if you noticed anything
out of the ordinary in my living room.
Other than the Band-Aid on my head,
but let's just ignore that part.
Yes, you might be saying that looks like a box spring
and a mattress in her living room.
It's actually been sitting there for about six months.
I thought about donating it.
I thought about what I could do to destroy it.
And I thought about just throwing it out.
So I've decided, finally,
that I should participate in this Me Too movement.
About 10 years ago, Tarana Burke used the phrase Me Too
for the first time creating a movement.
And Alyssa Milano recently tweeted Me Too,
which has made the phrase Me Too take off on social media.
A little back story.
I was raped a few years ago.
And without getting into the specifics,
I'm not sure that that really matters,
I kept sleeping on the mattress that I was raped on.
I am going to move this mattress
into my front yard tomorrow morning,
and I'm gonna write #MeToo real big with Sharpies.
And then I'm gonna leave a bunch of Sharpies
and a note to welcome other people to write a message,
share anything they want.
It seemed like a better idea than my other options.
(sighs) Okay, good morning.
Today's the day the mattress goes outside.
And I know it's time to get up,
because my dog's sitting on me.
Let's do this.
(dog tags jingle)
I think I kept sleeping on this mattress
because I still had so much anger
and shame that I was holding on to.
And I'm not gonna do it anymore.
I'm over this.
I am over letting this control my life.
I got Sharpies and I have puffy paint,
so I'm gonna leave this out for people.
Right now I'm feeling pretty nervous about doing this.
It was so important for me to know that I wasn't alone,
and you're not alone.
There is help out there.
There are others who have been through this.
I'm not sure that you ever feel completely healed,
but you make progress.
I kinda feel like I wanna cry.
I kinda wanna smile.
I have a lot of emotions going through me
that I'm having a hard time identifying.
But I think it feels good.
I think one of the biggest parts for me
was writing underneath Me Too,
on this bed, in my house, on a second date.
This unfortunate experience, I think always stays with you.
And there are constantly new ways
in which it presents itself in situations,
in conversations, in your mind.
And I think it's important to recognize that,
and find ways to empower yourself and not be afraid,
and not be ashamed of what happened
because it's not your fault.
It wasn't my fault, it wasn't your fault,
and you do the best that you can.
So this is me taking another step,
moving towards another direction of reclaiming my life
and empowering myself to say that it's gonna be okay.
I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.
Little strong, nervous.
I wanna just tell people.
It's a weird thing to wanna tell people.
I think it's time to go to work.
Okay, it's the end of the day.
Let's go see what this mattress looks like.
Oh, my God, people did write on it.
Yeah, I'm a little stunned.
I didn't know what to expect.
I think I need to process a little bit.
- What?
- Are you having people write on it?
- Yeah, I left notes out here. - This is amazing.
- Oh.
- People have just been writing on it?
- [Kate] I put it out this morning, because I've--
- This is amazing.
Can I write on it?
- [Kate] Yeah.
- [Blonde Woman] I love this.
- I've worked for BuzzFeed for over two years.
I've helped make a number of videos,
but I've never made a video like this,
or one by myself before.
So it feels a little crazy, but it's also empowering.
And while it doesn't go away, there is hope.
It's kind of a relief.
I never thought I would do anything like this.
(pensive music)
It's pretty amazing,
the impact that one person can have on another,
that it matters to be heard.