HA note: The following is reprinted with permission from Kierstyn King’s blog Bridging the Gap. It was originally published on January 11, 2016.
Dear Hillary,
I don’t even know where to begin. You’ve grown and lived and thrived and your life journey is a beautiful work of art, it almost feels wrong to bring up Quivering Daughters even just to say thank you. But I’m not speaking just for me, when I say, sincerely, thank you for writing through your journey, for taking care of us as we left our families, for writing Quivering Daughters and leaving the blog up. Your tender heart and kind words were the gentle encouragement we needed to start moving forward ourselves. You didn’t judge and yet firmly confirmed that abuse was happening, that we weren’t wrong or broken for feeling how we did – you opened up the doors to healing for so many more of us than you know.
And I just really, truly, with all the warmth in the depths of my soul want to say thank you. Thank you for being the big sister so many of us needed, even though it was and is heart wrenching and hard and messy and exhausting. Thank you for moving forward in your own journey towards healing and showing us that it’s okay to embrace ourselves and make our life what we need it to be.
You are a beautiful human being and Quivering Daughters and now your art + life journey, mean so much to me, and so many of us.
Thank you. Thank you for being gentle and kind and healing. Thank you for lighting the way for so many more people than you realize.
Homeschoolers Anonymous 
I totally agree with this. Hillary taught me so much. She taught me how to validate others by validating my experiences. She taught me to recognize abuse and to graciously stand up for myself. She taught me that questioning things was ok. She taught me that it is ok to keep growing and changing even when it makes others uncomfortable. And so much more.
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Hillary was the reason I started blogging in the first place. She told me to tell my story, encouraged me to put words on paper, to be vulnerable and share it with the world. ❤
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Hillary was and is awesome.
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Hillary spoke publicly before others were speaking publicly. That takes courage!
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