Last Thursday, I had the honor of hearing Amelia Bonow speak at the Gender and Sexuality Colloquium at my university. I can tell you she’s the most powerful speaker I’ve ever heard, and she’s an unbelievably empowering woman. She literally shouted her abortion, letting everyone know how okay she is with her decision and that she will continue to fight for safe, legal abortions. If you haven’t heard of her and her hashtag activism, let me tell you about it.

Amelia started her speech by telling us how it all began. She told her abortion story on a whim after it was decided that Planned Parenthood would be defunded. She posted it on Facebook making her story available for everyone that she knew to see.

This post inspired hundreds of women that she was friends with on Facebook to write about their own abortions, proudly telling their stories on social media.

Shortly after the local buzz her friend Lindy West, writer for The Guardian, asked if she could share the post on her Twitter. Amelia of course agreed, and this is when #ShoutYourAbortion was born. People all over the country started using the hashtag and shared their abortion stories as proudly as Amelia did. She empowered women to feel okay and safe to tell all their stories. The viral hashtag brought Amelia online fame, and she was interviewed by 50 different places in a two week time span.

The hashtag's fame only grew after the interviews, but she also received a ton of backlash (expected). As women are empowered, there are bound to be repercussions. Amelia was greeted with death threats, someone releasing her address online, and harassment for her activism. But she didn't let this stop her.

She agreed to continue to work on the movement and make it something more legitimate because as she explained: she has the spotlight, and even though her voice is "a white, cisgendered mostly heterosexual woman's voice," it was getting the message across and giving a platform to thousands of women.

Amelia is inspiring. She continues to work with #ShoutYourAbortion and the only thing I wish for her is success. The entire point of being an activist is to create a voice for those that do not have one. Before she started her speech, she laid a t-shirt on top of the podium that said "Everyone knows I had an abortion." She is outspoken, motivating and a much-needed voice to help eliminate the incorrect labels that abortion has.

Her story shows that you can create something wonderful out of nowhere. You need the truth, and you need to have courage in order to stand for what is right and what deserves to be heard.

If you want to support #ShoutYourAbortion, visit http://shoutyourabortion.com/ or follow Amelia Bonow on Twitter.