Patti Feuereisen - Invisible Girls: Speaking the Truth about Sexual Abuse

Until now we have not heard the voices of teen girls quite like this. In this work, the author offers us a glimpse into the worlds of teenaged girls and young women who are abuse survivors. These young women tell their stories of incest, date rape, acquaintance rape, and mentor abuse. The stories deserve to be heard. The truth hurts, but it also heals.

Canadian Womens Health Network

Sex trafficking is an epidemic of monumental proportions. Invisible Girls: Speaking the Truth About Sexual Abuse helps our culture and society look straight into the experience of sexual abuse through the souls of the girls who have so beautifully articulated their pain and their healing. We have not heard the depth of pain and recovery quite like this before. This book and Dr. Pattis work gives us hope.

Carol Smolenski, executive director of ECPAT USA

I love Dr. Pattis message to the world! Sexual-abuse survivors heal and become victorious! In this battle zone field of sexual abuse with pain, hardship, and discomfort, these beautiful goddesses found their freedom and became victorious by walking in their honesty, truth and vulnerability. When we reveal our wounds, we heal and we help others heal. Owning your scars isnt shameful at all; in fact wearing them is very liberating and freeing. Thats exactly what Invisible Girls did for one of my best friends, it saved her life. Invisible Girls: Speaking the Truth About Sexual Abuse is a form of art that makes the unseen visible, it is a tale of the refusal to be broken, the determination to become whole and victorious.

Madison Jaye, global media personality, spiritual journalist

These voices of young abuse survivors and Dr. Pattis compassionate insights make this the important book for anyone who wants to begin to understand the trauma of sexual abuse and how girls and young women survive and thrive after the crime.

Scott Berkowitz, president of RAINN

As a provider to those most vulnerable, I opened Invisible Girls and it spoke to me like it was written just for me, from my perspective. Not only as a feminist, or an advocate, or a health-care provider, but as a soul that needed to find asylum from the toxicities and trauma witnessed daily on those I care for. Sharing this resource with survivors gives strength and resilience to those arriving with feelings of defeat. When I need help understanding the violent world around me, the human need for forgiveness, and capacity for recovery, I pick this book up again again and again.

Cynthia Wathen, Center of Hope Forensics

Invisible Girls is remarkable in featuring first-person accounts by girls who have survived incest, abuse, and rape like you have never heard before. Myths are debunked and survivors and their allies are guided toward a beautiful path of healing.

Girls Coalition of Greater Boston

I highly recommend Invisible Girls if you are a survivor of sexual violence, or know someone who is. As a lawyer for survivors of sexual violence, this book is a fantastic resource.

Rachna Goel, Jane Doe Advocacy Center

I give Invisible Girls: Speaking the Truth About Sexual Abuse credit for healing so many of my clients. I have purchased several copies for my staff and survivors as an invaluable resource. The feedback in my community is extraordinary.

Victims Crimes Assistance Program, Connecticut

Invisible Girls speaks the truth of sexual abuse like no other book has dared. The voices of courageous adolescent girls and young women shed light on the darkest realities of pain so deep and wide that we feel the bottom drop out and find ourselves in the language and imagery of the unconscious. We experience the resilience of those who have lived through the unspeakable. Only by enfolding us in the realities of suffering can we know the rage and the hope necessary for recovery.

Lyn Mikel-Brown, author of Girlfighting, Raising Our Voices, Packaging Girlhood, Powered by Girl, coauthor of Meeting at the Crossroads

I recommend Invisible Girls to everyone! This amazing book opened my eyes to the reality of sexual abuse and how girls actually get through it. I understood what girls in the book went through: silently shouting for help, living in households controlled by the feared abuser, being rejected by mothers who tried to keep their daughters from speaking out, and feeling as if theyd never be rid of the shame. But in it all I learned that girls do heal and thrive.

Natasha Santos, Youth Communications

This book gives girls who have gone through the unspeakable their voices loud and clear, like we have never heard before. We are forced to listen to these extraordinary voices. Invisible Girls shows us the way to recovery.

Eva Vives, film writer, director of All About Nina

Thanks to Feuereisens expertise, thoughtful advice, and ability to speak directly to the girls, Invisible Girls has created a space for girls to tell their stories and break through the walls of silence and begin to heal. More girls and young women will find the courage to come forward and no longer feel invisible after reading this book.

Katie Feifer, Voices and Faces Project

More than advocating one path or set of choices, Feuereisen applauds not just survival; she validates the difficulties of being a young woman today. From a practical perspective, Invisible Girls offers a lot of useful information for young survivors. Feuereisen believes that telling ones own story as early as possible will lead to greater healing over a lifetime. She explains the ins and outs of recovering from abuse and puts the tools for healing in her readers hands. This is a groundbreaking book.

Britney Shoot, Rewire

Feuereisen addresses myths about female sexuality and abuse, and offers advice on preventing, reporting, and recovering from abuse with personal voices as the strength reminding other victims that they are not alone and that healing is possible. An important book.

School Library Journal

Invisible Girls taught me, whatever your age, you are the right age to be coming out and telling your truth. Its time to let go of all the self-blame that weve carried. After reading