Teen TikTok star Loren Gray recounted a harrowing sexual assault in a video posted to the social media platform on Saturday.
The singer, now 18, said the assault occurred when she was just 12.
‘I want to tell you my REAL story,’ Loren’s video began as it showed some photos of herself shortly before her 13th birthday.
‘At this time I had my innocence stolen from me in the basement of someone I trusted,’ she continued over a photo of herself.
Brave story: Loren Gray, 18, revealed Saturday in a TikTok video that she was sexually assaulted when she was only 13
She included a photo of herself embracing a friend, presumably the only person she previously opened up to about the assault.
‘We cried in my bathroom for hours. I struggled to put the pieces together as to why this had happened to me,’ she continued, before noting that she waited two months to tell her parents what happened.
Loren described feeling hopeless and damaged and blaming herself for the crime that was perpetrated against her.
Flashback: The video featured photos taken throughout her teenage years as she recounted the attack in the text
Secret: The assault occurred in the ‘basement of someone I trusted.’ She said it took her two months to tell her parents, and her best friend was the only other person she told
Misplaced blame: Like many survivors of sexual assault, she described feeling ‘worthless’ and ‘broken.’ She said: ‘I felt like it was my fault’
Though her videos gave her an outlet to express herself and eased her ‘loneliness and isolation,’ they also opened her up to misogynistic insults from anonymous users.
The singer said she came to understand that the assault wasn’t her fault as time passed, and she ended the video with photos of triumphant moments on stage.
‘There is light at the end of the tunnel, and if my story can help even ONE person, than to me it is a story worth telling [sic],’ she concluded.
Same as it ever was: Though her videos were a creative outlet, they also exposed her to misogynistic attacks
Losing it all: The singer feared divulging her secret, lest people treat her differently or abandon her
Top of the world: The clip ended on a positive note as she realized ‘there is light at the end of the tunnel,’ with photos of her success on stage accompanying the text
Loren followed up the emotionally raw video with a notes app message shared to her Twitter account.
‘It’s been really difficult for me to share this part of my life in such a public way,’ she wrote.
‘I received a message that somehow someone knew. but i know how fast word travels and i wanted to be the one to tell my story,’ she continued.
The social media star thanked her fans, while also lamenting how many other people had stories of sexual assaults similar to hers.
‘Although i was forced to grow up quickly and lost a part of me in the process, i would’n’t change anything about my life,’ she wrote.
Giving thanks: Later, Loren posted a thank you on Twitter to her 42.9 million TikTok followers
Taking back her story: She revealed that she made the video because someone threatened to tell her story first, though she said she had ‘no regrets because I am no longer ashamed’
‘Although i hate that I felt forced into sharing this prematurely, i have no regrets because i am no longer ashamed,’ she added.
‘So when I saw you give me purpose and helped me through the darkest times in my life, i mean it from the bottom of my heart.
‘I hope that this can shed some light on the gravity of sexual assault, and provide some hope for anyone who can relate,’ she concluded.