Lady Gaga's music video for "Til It Happens To You" has taken the Internet by storm. It has been viewed nearly 13 million times in the span of a week.

So what is Gaga's latest stunt that has everyone talking? A dress made out of fish? A new, outlandish haircut? No, no sparkly poker faces here. Gaga's latest single was written exclusively for "The Hunting Ground," a documentary about sexual assault on college campuses.

So, you take an eccentric musician and a controversial topic and it's a recipe for earth-shattering news, right? I beg to differ.

The scariest part about Lady Gaga's new music video is: I've heard it all before.

As a college sophomore, I know the statistics. One in five women is sexually assaulted on college campuses. And if it's not you, it's one of your friends. I can confirm this. I live this. My friends live this. I know people, have heard their stories, and have tried somehow to offer a fraction of comfort to them. But it's hard. Our society may talk about sexual assault, but it doesn't teach us how to deal with it. Society doesn't tell us how to report stories, how to help a friend, how we are not at fault. Instead we learn how to dress, which guys to text for a walk home, what to carry to defend ourselves. We just learn to hope it's not us.

So when I heard this was the focus of Gaga's video, I was skeptical. What could I see that I didn't already know? How many times would I have to hear of girls' stories?

It's scary that these are the first things that came to my mind.

But the great thing about the music video is that it takes all these statistics and stories that saturate our world and begin to wash over us ("Oh, another case of sexual assault where justice will never be served") and wakes us up. After you've heard it all before, black and white print can only do so much, conversations can only do so much, but a music video or film can make a greater impact.

And Gaga's depiction of sexual assault on college campuses isn't just hard-hitting because it's visual, but it's thoughtful. The black and white tone is no-nonsense, the actors are realistic, and the situations are ordinary. It shows how it can happen with the least likely characters, in the least likely scenarios. And it answers that ever brain-numbing question: Why doesn't she just fight back? Take a look at the video and tell me how you would fight back successfully.

Bravo, Gaga. Thank you for shining a light on a topic we hear about too often, and too often in the wrong manner. Thank you for showing how these sexual assault stories are real and awfully raw. They are not isolated incidences of physical abuse, but they reach far beyond that. These women (and sometimes men) are victims suffering in more ways than meets the eye.

My hope is that all this talk generated by the video and documentary will cause change. So on the chance that the next generation watches this video, it will be scarier for them in a much different way.

For more information about "The Hunting Ground" click here.