Las Cruces teen shares sexual assault experience, launches support network online

When Las Cruces teenager Abrianna Morales was sexually assaulted at the age of 15, she said she felt lost and overwhelmed.

“I was devastated,” Morales said. “I was crying myself to sleep. I thought I couldn’t ever be the person I was prior to being sexually assaulted.”

After reporting the assault with her parents’ help, Morales tried to find guidance online, but failed.

“I remember Googling, ‘Why do I feel this way?”” Morales explained. “Trying to get a basic understanding of these things that I couldn’t process myself… I couldn’t find that.”

Morales founded a website called Sexual Assault Youth Support Network which provides legal, emotional and social guidance for young victims of sexual assault and their friends and family.

“It’s been incredibly helpful with my healing process,” Morales said. “It’s not your path or your trauma that defines you, it’s the actions that you take to overcome it.”

Her website offers practical legal guidance for teenagers who must report a sexual assault, including Title IX rights and sexual assault statutes and limitations in every state.

“A lot of children with the lack of financial independence (or) physical independence, they don’t have the ability to report by themselves or they don’t have parents who support them to report by themselves.”

Morales said the initial shame she felt discouraged her from continuing to compete in scholarship pageants, but she decided to not let her past define her future.

“Why can’t I do it?” Morales said. “There’s nothing stopping me. I want to be the sexual assault survivor that went out and did this. I want to be the teen that other kids can look up to.”

Morales was crowned Miss New Mexico’s Outstanding Teen on June 10 with her platform of helping sexual assault survivors. She will compete in the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen pageant later this month.

In her “I Am” photo series, Morales photographed sexual assault survivors and supporters to show that the act does not define them.

“I was flooded with messages online of other people sharing their stories, wanting to be involved and it was just so inspiring and so helpful,” Morales said. “Though my trauma and my experiences were painful, the overcoming of them and the ability to help others that has come out of that has been incredibly healing and really remarkable.”

Morales hopes to encourage other young survivors to know that they’re not alone during this process.

“You can survive, I can survive and you can overcome anything,” Morales said. “If you choose to survive or choose to thrive, then you will.”

If you’d like to contribute or follow the information on her website, Morales said they are accepting outside help.