First published 2025
Amanda Nguyen begins this memoir as a Harvard student whose dreams of working for NASA seem within reach. The daughter of Vietnamese refugees, she has found Harvard to be a sanctuary from her troubled childhood. In 2013, at a fraternity party, she is raped. Determined not to let this derail her carefully constructed future, she files her rape kit under Jane Doe to protect her career prospects. She then discovers Massachusetts law will destroy her kit in six months, making future prosecution impossible. Nguyen faces a choice: accept a system that denies her justice or fight to change it. She chooses to fight, not just for herself but for all survivors. Her journey through grief and recovery leads her to create the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights, which becomes one of the few laws in American history to pass unanimously. This memoir traces her path from victim to Nobel Peace Prize nominee, showing how personal pain can fuel systemic change.
Genres: autobiography, contemporary, biography-memoir, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, systemic-change
Setting: Harvard, Massachusetts
Period: 2013
224 pages · Hardcover · AUWA
Content warnings: sexual-assault