Raegan Allen

I walk for little me and me now, my mother, my friends and for every woman and girl who has felt unsafe and learned to be quiet and compliant instead of supported and protected

Safety should never be something women have to negotiate for. It shouldn’t be delicate or conditional or dependent on who we happen to love, what mood someone else is in, or how quietly we carry ourselves through the world. But for so many women — including my mother, the women before her, my friends, and even myself — safety has often felt like something that could be taken away without warning.

Across generations in my family, the women I grew up admiring learned strength the hard way. They learned to survive before they ever had the chance to feel safe. And like so many women I love, I’ve carried my own quiet stories too — the kind you fold up small so you can still show up to work, still make dinner, still hold relationships together, still pretend nothing is cracking beneath the surface. To survive meant to shrink and lose any spark of myself.

I’m taking part in this challenge because these stories matter. Because we shouldn’t have to live in a world where women prepare escape plans in their heads, send “home now” texts to friends, or shrink themselves just to stay unharmed in their homes, their workplaces, or even walking to the shops. 

I’m doing this for the women in my family whose resilience shaped me. For the friends who deserved protection long before anyone offered it. For the women who are still living in fear right now. And for every woman who stays quiet because speaking would cost too much. I do this for myself, for the wounds that are yet to heal and the fear that I combat everyday. I do this for the little version of me who didn't feel safe and was raised to be afraid.

Most of all, I’m doing it for the future we all deserve — a world where safety isn’t something women hope for. It’s something they can rely on.