After inspiring state bill, Yorkville woman hopes to create ‘Me Three’ movement for child sex abuse survivors

For some, inspiring passage of state legislation would be enough, but for Yorkville’s Colleen Murphy’s rest won’t come until she’s helped inspire a movement. Murphy foresees her campaign to encourage normalizing sharing experiences of child sexual abuse becoming the next “Me Too” movement.

Murphy founded the nonprofit “My Body Tells the Truth” to promote sexual abuse prevention education for children. As owner of Shear Salon in Yorkville, she was inspired to help drive passage of the Child Abuse Notice Act after hearing how prevalent abuse is from customers sharing stories.

Murphy said the outpouring of community support she’s received since the law took effect on Jan. 1, inspired her to promote a social media campaign to promote prevention messaging directed towards children.

“I’m hoping like the ‘Me Too’ movement, this trend helps become the ‘Me Three’ movement for kids,” Murphy said. “The more people normalize prevention messaging, the easier it becomes to talk about, the more victims are encouraged to come forward to share their stories.”

The Child Abuse Notice Act requires establishments frequented by minors, such as day care centers, elementary and secondary schools, bus stations, hospital emergency rooms, entertainment and sporting facilities, hotels and motels to display in their bathrooms multi-lingual educational posters.

The posters, designed by the Department of Children and Family Services, must be understandable for minors of all ages and provide information on what constitutes physical and sexual abuse and how to report it.

“People started to share their full stories, for some it was for the first time in their lives,” Murphy said. “It fueled the passion for our messaging even further. You don’t have to be rich, famous, or flawless to model prevention. You can rock a T-shirt with prevention messaging, you can post on social media similar to my posting that is showing the camera a sign that speaks directly to children about not having to carry a secret about private parts.”

Murphy said with each new person bravely coming forward they help fight against the stigmas survivors live with that can often prevent people from sharing their experiences and struggles.

Even within her own community, Murphy said she has seen a new momentum start to chip away at the stigmas, helping to normalize prevention messaging.

“People are proud of this concept, they like the idea that it was born in Yorkville and they’re happy to see it grow,” Murphy said. “If it’s a trend that’s going to keep escalating, along with the bill that was passed, it’s going to definitely help put Yorkville on the map for being at the forefront of such an important movement.”

Murphy said all the credit for the movement belongs to the survivors of abuse and the bravery they demonstrate coming forward.

“I am just the vision behind the voices, the survivors deserve all the recognition,” Murphy said. “As you can imagine, the attention for some survivors can be terrifying and it’s been an honor to fight alongside them.”

You can learn more about Murphy’s organization, “My Body Tells the Truth,” by visiting mbttt.org. Murphy encourages people to share their own posts with #Mbttt, and to follow @mybodytellsthetruth on instagram and on Facebook.