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Natalie Portman's disgusting first fan mail at age 13 shows why we need #MeToo.

It's probably not all that surprising that actor Natalie Portman, who's worked in the film industry for over two decades, has her own #MeToo story to share. But the extent to which rape culture allowed her to be targeted, objectified, and harassed in the public eye — even as a teenager — should disturb us all.

Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images.


Speaking at the Women's March in Los Angeles on Jan. 20, 2018, Portman opened up about her first experiences dealing with what she described as "sexual terrorism."

"I turned 12 on the set of my first film, 'The Professional,'" Portman explained on stage. "[At 13] I excitedly opened my first fan mail — to read a rape fantasy that a man had written me."

She continued, noting the various ways in which she was sexualized publicly long before adulthood:

“A countdown was started on my local radio show to my 18th birthday, euphemistically the date that I would be legal to sleep with. Movie reviewers talked about my budding breasts in reviews. I understood very quickly, even as a 13-year-old, that if I were to express myself sexually, I would feel unsafe, and that men would feel entitled to discuss and objectify my body to my great discomfort."

Natalie Portman speaks at the Women's March in L.A. Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images.

Speaking at an event with roughly 600,000 supporters, Portman appeared willing to revisit a painful part of her past if it meant sparking positive change for our future. Her outspokenness isn't all that surprising to those paying attention though.

Portman has become a vocal advocate for women in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

Earlier this month at the Golden Globes, Portman dressed in all black in support of Time's Up — an initiative to combat sexual harassment and assault far beyond the world of filmmaking. The campaign has raked in millions of dollars in funding for victims everywhere who may not have the finances to pursue legal action on their own.

The Oscar-winning actor made waves during the ceremony by pointing out all five nominees up for best director were men. “And here are all the male nominees,” she said on stage to both applause and jeers from the crowd.

Portman is ready for a cultural shift that allows women to feel empowered to speak up whenever they choose.

“I’d like to propose one way to continue moving this revolution forward: let’s declare, loud and clear, this is what I want, this is what I need, this is what I desire, this is how you can help me achieve pleasure," she said boisterously on Saturday. "To people of all genders here with us today, let’s find a space where we mutually, consensually look out for each other’s pleasure, and allow the vast, limitless range of desire to be expressed."

Watch Portman's speech at the Women's March Los Angeles below:

All photos courtesy of The Coca-Cola Company

Behind the Scenes Making Recycled Records with Mark Ronson

True

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Mom Dani Grier Mulvenna shared a photo of her infant daughter Cora side by side with a photo of Woody Harrelson on Twitter, with the caption "Ok but how does our daughter look like Woody Harrelson." The resemblance truly is remarkable, and the tweet quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of likes, shares and replies.

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Surgeons prepared to separate 3-year-old conjoined twins in Brazil using virtual reality.

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Education

Unearthed BBC interview features two Victorian-era women discussing being teens in the 1800s

Frances 'Effy' Jones, one of the first women to be trained to use a typewriter and to take up cycling as a hobby, recalls life as a young working woman in London.

Two Victorian women discuss being teens in the 1800s.

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via Pexels

Parents who just can't stop fighting

Whitney Goodman, a licensed marriage and family therapist, shared a video about kids who grew up in homes where their parents were always fighting, which made many people feel seen. It also started a conversation about who deserves more empathy in the parent-child relationship: the parents or the children.

Goodman is known as the “radically honest” psychotherapist and the author of “Toxic Positivity: Keeping it Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy.”

"If you grew up in this kind of house, you may have noticed that your family would split off into different alliances or teams to try to manage the material discord. Because the marriage wasn't a good or safe foundation for the family, everybody else had to kind of go and form these new teams,” Goodman explained in an Instagram post.

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Joy

People fell in love with Marty the cat after his owner wrote a heartbreaking goodbye letter

“I know this is a small tragedy in the grand scheme of the world, but one that I feel acutely knowing that I expected many more years with my friend."

Photo by Juanita Swart on Unsplash

RIP Marty

Tons of people found themselves clicking on the trending hashtag #RIPMarty, expecting to hear tragic news about a celebrity of some sort.

Instead, they learned about Marty the cat, whose owner shared the most heartbreakingly beautiful goodbye letter following his passing. That letter quickly went viral online, leaving folks completely invested Marty's story, not to mention utterly devastated.

Will Menaker, who shared the letter on Twitter, began by sharing how he and Marty first met. Or more accurately, how Marty introduced himself by emerging from under a car and unapologetically following Menaker up to the steps of his apartment seeking pets. Eventually, as the weather began to get colder, Menaker experimented with bringing Marty inside.

“From that moment on I was in love. I wouldn’t say I ‘had’ a cat, but from then on I shared a house with a tuxedo cat I would name Marty,” Menaker wrote.

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