Courtney Stodden: “15 years ago today, a 16 year old girl was married off to a man 35 years older than her and the world treated her like the scandal instead of the victim.”

@courtneyastodd: 15 years ago today, a 16 year old girl was married off to a man 35 years older than her and the world treated her like the scandal instead of the victim. I was a virgin. Emotionally still a child. And too young to understand what was about to happen to me behind closed doors for years. Just because a child says "I do" does not mean she understands consent. Tomorrow I'm downsizing my breasts and for the first time in my life my body feels like it belongs to me instead of the public that consumed it before I even became a woman. A child bride is not a love story. She's a child surviving adult trauma in plain sight.