Her grades dropped, she barely went to school, she invited even more boys into her bed, just hoping that one of them would look at her and see how amazing she is.

My sister was the “slut”. When I went into middle school, things were easy for me. I had already had my two older brothers go through the same school, where they had been well liked all around. My older sister was a year ahead of me, then, and was already captain of the cheer team. I was happy—I had a “boyfriend”, I was on the basketball team, and had what I THOUGHT was a solid group of friends. During my 7th grade year and my sister's 8th grade year, things changed. My sister and I had both developed pretty early on, and when it came to being sexually active, my sister was already into exploring her options. My parents taught us to be open about who we are, and to not look down on ourselves for our urges, despite our Christian upbringing. So, when my sister ended up losing her virginity in the 8th grade I was shocked and maybe a little confused, but not disappointed. On the other hand, things spiraled quickly out of control. The week after it happened, rumors began flying around. Someone apparently had seen my sister with her boyfriend, when they were at a party, and someone had taken a PICTURE. They documented what was supposed to be a special night in my sister's life. By Wednesday, I couldn’t walk down the hall without hearing “Lenny’s such a slut”. It was written on the bathroom walls, scratched into her locker, even written in Sharpie on the back of her cheer uniform by one of her teammates. My sister was devastated. It didn’t take long for her to fall from the top of the pyramid to the lowest on the totem pole. Suddenly my “friends” were telling me they didn’t want to come over if my sister would be there and if they invited me to a party, it was always made very clear that my sister was NOT invited, under any circumstances. Her boyfriend at the time was quick to step up to all the rumors—“Yes,” he said, they did have wild sex for three hours. “Yes,” he said, she was totally kinky. “Yes,” he said, she’s a lot looser than her little sister. “Yes,” he said, we’ve had sex a hundred times. They were all lies, all stories made up by some sick and twisted thirteen and fourteen year olds that thought it was OKAY to hurt my sister, just because she had the audacity to be sexually active. It didn’t matter that she got straight A’s and maintained a perfect GPA, was captain of the cheer team, Student Body Secretary and volunteered to help with the disabled kids. All that mattered was one moment of lust for a boy she thought she loved and it was over. Nothing mattered except her “SLUT” status. And that’s not okay. I saw what it did to my sister. I saw the toll it took. Her grades dropped, she barely went to school, she invited even more boys into her bed, just hoping that one of them would look at her and see how amazing she is. None of them looked at her. None of them SAW her for the amazing girl she was, and the amazing woman she is now. Currently, my sister is graduating high school early this year and will be HOPEFULLY going to the college of her choice, once she gets her acceptance letters. The battle against this “slut” status is far from over, and to be quite honest, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the first time someone told me my sister was a slut.