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The Women Who Said “Me Too”
The responses to Milano’s “me too” tweet came from all kinds of
people, including many celebrities. Superstar Lady Gaga, who
had been open about her own trauma as a rape survivor, was
among the fi rst celebrities to tweet a response. A number of ac-
tresses also responded, including Gabrielle Union, Anna Paquin,
Patricia Arquette, Viola Davis, Deborah Messing, Rosario Daw-
son, and Evan Rachel Wood. Singer/songwriter Kimya Dawson
tweeted “me too,” as did comedian
Lane Moore and former Fox News an-
chor Gretchen Carlson. Most women
who tweeted #MeToo messages were “A stranger tweeted back to
not famous, however. As journalist Mary me to stay strong.” 15
Pfl um writes in an NBC News story, — Stephanie Angstadt, a seventeen-year-
“Many women who were not household old girl who responded to the “me too”
names also spoke out: nurses, teach- tweet
ers, engineers, fl orists, waitresses and
students—mothers and daughters, sis-
ters and wives.” 13
One young woman who responded was seventeen-year-old
Stephanie Angstadt. When she saw Milano’s “me too” tweet, she
was living in a group home in Mississippi and says she was feeling
“very cut off from the world.” Angstadt had been placed in pro-
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tective custody after reporting that her father had sexually abused
her from the time she was fi fteen. On October 15, 2017, while
looking at her Twitter feed, she saw tweet after tweet after tweet
from women who were responding to Milano with their own “me
too” messages. Seeing so many others who had been sexually
harassed or assaulted made Angstadt realize she was not alone,
and it gave her the courage to tweet about her own trauma. Im-
mediately, people replied with messages of support. “A stranger
tweeted back to me to stay strong,” she says.
15
Nora Yolles Young, a hypnotherapist from Carrboro, North
Carolina, also responded to Milano’s “me too” tweet. While Young
was in her twenties, she was on an archaeological dig with a
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