Brie Lybrand, a pageant star and aspiring model/actress best known her beauty and shopping tutorials on YouTube, has shaken people all over the web up with her latest video blog, entitled, "A Message to My Rapist." In the 12-minute clip, Lybrand appears bare-faced and shaken-up, explaining that she just got an email stating that the "man who raped me for most of my life subscribed to me. The man that took my virginity, robbed me of an innocence has subscribed to me on YouTube and is watching my videos." She notes that the man, named Steven Bressler, who "molested, tortured, and raped" her from the time she was 4 until she was 13 years old is her father ...
Lybrand goes on to detail how she enjoyed success and popularity in school despite the abuse. But she confesses she still has nightmares, still fears her father will kill her, and as a result, owns three loaded guns she keeps near her at all times, in case he comes back to attack her. So, so horrifying and sad.
As the video has made its way around the web, the feedback has been mostly sympathetic. Unfortunately, there are a handful of people accusing Lybrand of faking the confession in an attempt to snag fame and publicity. After all, she's an actress, right? But those people are missing the point.
It seems to me that Lybrand wanted to both publicly shame her attacker and to be real with her followers. Maybe she bravely wanted to prove sexual/physical/emotional abuse can happen to anyone -- even a beauty queen. And maybe she put her horrifying experience out there in hopes that it could make it less taboo for others to come out with their own stories of abuse? And geeze ... even if there's even a sliver of a possibility that this is fiction -- which I am near positive is NOT the case -- Lybrand clearly needs help and support right now. Not verbal attacks from faceless strangers online.
In the end, Lybrand's confession is nothing short of gut-wrenching and eye-opening ... And we should only hope this young woman gets the peace of mind she so obviously needs and deserves.
Here's the clip ...
What do you make of this?
Image via MyRedSolara/YouTube
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Comments 13
I believe her, she is looking down and to the left most of the time, that is someone recalling a memory, is she was looking up and to the right most of the time, she is thinking of something to say.
For those who thinks she is faking... how is it that a survivor acts.. do you know? Do you live with the Chronic PTSD that comes from early childhood sexual abuse? Survivors often have odd emotional reactions that seem strange to others because of the coping skills they had to learn in order to survive.
block him social networking stinks at its best