9/4/19. 11:06 PM. I had school the next day, but I was still wide awake. My phone screen illuminated my dark bedroom as I opened Twitter and scrolled through the Trending Tab. A name caught my eye, Chanel Miller. I clicked on the hashtag #Chanel Miller as I wondered who and what was generating thousands and thousands of tweets. A celebrity? A YouTuber? A new designer bag? The answer is none of the above. You know her story, but you may not know her name. Chanel Miller is “Emily Doe”, the victim in the Brock Turner Stanford University sexual assault case.
For anyone unfamiliar with the case, Brock Turner, a former star swimmer at Stanford University, sexually assaulted Miller behind a dumpster at a frat party while she was intoxicated and unconscious in January 2015. He was tried with three charges of felony sexual assault, which required a maximum sentence of 14 years. Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail, but only served three of those months behind bars.
At the sentencing hearing in 2016, Miller read a statement to Turner that shocked the nation into waves of anger and sadness. I read the statement myself and shed tears as I felt the sheer pain and raw emotions expressed in Miller’s beautifully crafted letter. One particular sentence that stood out to me was, “You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside of me, and that’s why we’re here today”. A seemingly simple sentence that carries so much of the weight of what had happened to her.
Miller’s letter did not solely address Turner, but it also addressed those who supported her throughout the entire trial and the behind the scenes. She concluded by thanking everyone who truly cared for her and ended with the hope that to anyone who is reading the letter, “To girls everywhere, I [she] am with you”.
Until a few weeks ago, Miller remained anonymous. She was known as “Emily Doe” and did not want to be known as the “unconscious intoxicated woman”. Acknowledging herself as the girl in the headlines would mean it was all real and Miller would have to relearn her identity. In her own words, she had to learn that, “I am not just a drunk victim at a frat party found behind a dumpster, while you are the All American swimmer at a top university, innocent until proven guilty, with so much at stake. I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt, my life was put on hold for over a year, waiting to figure out if I was worth something”.
She is now ready to reveal herself and her new upcoming memoir Know My Name. Writing this book was a way for Miller to put the pieces of the puzzle together of what happened that night and its effects.
Know My Name’s cover art is inspired by kintsugi or “golden repair”, which is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery pieces using lacquer and powdered gold. The cover symbolizes Miller’s recovery and process of gaining back her own perceptions of beauty and self-worth.
Miller is only one voice of many who have gone through similar experiences, but her voice continues to inspire and expose people to the harsh reality of the criminal justice system while emphasizing the power of persevering and living on. You can learn more about Chanel Miller’s story by watching her upcoming interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes on September 22nd.
Here is a snippet of that interview:
Her memoir “Know My Name” will be released on September 24th, and you can preorder yours here.
