"this is your kind of story. no one is the good guy-- no one is the bad guy-- the blame shifts from monster to monster and in this place everyone bares their teeth." [featured. highest ranking: #6 in poetry.]

I was the 6th-grade "slut." And I kept a diary. So I decided to create The UnSlut Project in the hopes that my own diary entries could provide some perspective to girls who currently feel trapped and ashamed. I am publishing these entries one at a time, without changing a single word except for the names of the people involved. My limited commentary, which is confined to brackets in each entry, is meant to provide the relief of my current perspective, fifteen years later. The UnSlut Project: Working to undo the dangerous slut shaming in our schools, communities, media, and culture by sharing knowledge and experiences.

A young woman who was always the life of the party, quick to tell a joke, always smiling and happy, tragically dies at age 23. What her mother found after her death reflected a much different young woman, her poetry. Her words showed a young woman crying out to feel loved, wanted, beautiful and worthy. Struggling to accept herself as the wonderful, happy, beautiful young woman everyone else saw her as. Her words reflect the pain and torment she allowed another to cause her. It is her mother's most heart felt desire to reach even one young person struggling to accept themselves. To encourage them to open up and talk to someone, to know they are never alone, to know their feelings are validated. She also hopes to reach a mother that perhaps feels her daughter is perfect and completely in charge of her life, as mothers often do. After reading her poetry, hopefully it will facilitate conversation, confirm unconditional love and help to end words that a mother never hears. I am her mother and these are her words.

A collection of poetry found under lovers nails or stained against your pillow case - highest ranking - #3 poems - #9 in poetry - All rights reserved - © Ruby Smith @desp-erate 2014 Cover by @-grxnge

A collection of EXCERPTS. [poetry, quotes, and otherwise]. Your place to come when you feel lonely, because you're not alone when you feel this way. "We cling to music, to poems, to quotes, to writing, to art because we desperately do not want to be alone. We want to know we aren't going insane and someone else out there knows exactly how you're feeling. We want someone to explain the things we can't." IMPORTANT: Read 'not an update; read please' beforehand. Note: parts more towards the end are fairly better than the beginning, just a fair warning. **TRIGGER WARNING** [Highest ranking: #1 in Poetry]