Dear Gossips,
She was formerly known as “unconscious intoxicated woman” and as Emily Doe, who was raped by Brock Turner behind a dumpster. As she wrote in her impact statement that was published by Buzzfeed and read around the world:
For a while, I believed that that was all I was. I had to force myself to relearn my real name, my identity. To relearn that this is not all that I am.
She has indeed relearned her name and relearned that this is not all that she is. So let’s meet her, again, for the first time.
She is Chanel Miller, a survivor, and she wants you to know her name. Know My Name is the name of her book and now, in reclaiming her identity, she has added to it. She wrote her way through the pain and trauma and, in the process, she wrote her way back – and forward – to who she is:
Chanel Miller is a writer, Chanel Miller is a published author, Chanel Miller is soon to be a bestselling author. This is the identity she has forged for herself by telling her own story. This is her superpower.
And now we get to meet Chanel Miller. Know My Name comes out on September 24. You can pre-order the book here. Maybe it’ll set records so that Chanel Miller can be even more, her identity even further expanded: activist, bestselling author, record-setting author, and, always, the “lighthouse” she referenced at the end of her impact statement, quoting Anne Lamott:
"Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining."
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
