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She’s an educator, an author, and an overall a woman that exemplifies strength. As a survivor of sexual trauma, Theresa Bowe has dedicated her life to help others through her books. We caught up with Bowe to discuss her recently released illustrated children’s book, My Mommy’s Boyfriend, the Don’t Touch Me Movement, and more!

Tell us about your new your book, My Mommy’s Boyfriend.

This amazing project, My Mommy’s Boyfriend was derived from a show that I was on called Love Goals on OWN. We tapped into childhood trauma. I realized that eight of the ten people on the panel were unfortunately molested. Up until that, I did not tell anyone that I went through that as a child. Immediately when I realized that everyone around me was too a victim, I started to do my research and saw that I didn’t not know as much as I thought I did on the topic. I sat down with my team and we decided to create an educational tool to help kids like myself that had no one in their lives to educate them and tell them about the ugly facts on sexual trauma. I used that title because it was the situation I went through with my mom as a child. The book is an educational tool and is an amazing piece of information for every child to have.

How do you believe your experiences in life have shaped you?

It’s made me a warrior and a strong woman. It made me fearless but outside of that, it taught me to now be that teacher to my children. I don’t regret anything that I’ve been through. I know the strength that I have today is from all I’ve gone through in my life.

What inspired the creation of the movement, Don’t Touch Me.

It was exactly what I was saying about learning how many kids are affected by sexual molestation and human trafficking. I did not know anything about the statistics behind child molestation around the world. It’s never a stranger, I stress that to my children because I want them to walk into their future differently. A lot of parents believe that kids are too young to know but you are never too young to understand what could potentially harm you and affect your life. It’s important for my children but the children around the world so that they can speak up and come to others when they have been victimized.

What can we expect in your second book, Good Secret, Bad Secret that is slated to release next year?

It’s such an important topic. A secret is not a secret. It’s the bad secrets that we hold onto more than the good secrets. It’s about speaking up because those bad secrets are allowing these predators to continue harming more children and affecting households.

For more on Theresa Bowe, click here.

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All images by GLM Production