Miss America By Day

In her book, Miss America By Day – Lessons Learned from Ultimate Betrayals and Unconditional Love, Marilyn Van Derbur, a former Miss America, tells the story of how she was sexually violated by her prominent, millionaire father from age 5 to age 18. She was 53 years old before she was able to speak the words in public, “I am an incest survivor.” She opened the door for tens of thousands of sexual abuse survivors to also speak the words, many for the first time, within their own families and communities.

Marilyn describes, in detail, what specific “work” she did on her journey from victim to survivor. After learning of a woman’s rape, Marilyn heard a close friend say, “It was a bad 20 minutes.” In the hope that rape and sexual abuse will no longer be as easily dismissed or minimized, Marilyn writes for the first time about what her father did to her and what the impact has been on her adult life.

Using her story as the scaffolding, she shares knowledge and insights she has gained through speaking personally with adult survivors of sexual abuse across the country. Marilyn has been in personal contact with more survivors than anyone in America. She has personally answered over 8,000 letters and spoken in 225 cities. Survivors line up for two to three hours to tell her their stories.

Marilyn’s major motivation in writing the book came as a result of hearing these words literally thousands of times: “When I was 7 and my brother was 13…” Only the ages changed.

The most frequently reported age when sexual abuse begins is between 5 and 6 years old and common offenders are older brothers and teenage baby-sitters (both male and female). Suprisingly, 14 -year-olds comprise the largest number of sex offenders of any age group.

With her extensive research on the long-term impact of trauma and her belief that sexual abuse prevention is the best weapon for keeping our children safe, Marilyn urges parents to talk with children, as young as five, and provides suggested guidelines for important conversations that will, hopefully, evolve into continuous dialogues.

Knowing that vulnerable children are targets, she gives unique ways of building children’s self esteem.

Read how she responds to: “This happened decades ago.” “How could you forget?” “Are there really ‘false memories’?” “Can ‘just fondling’ cause as much trauma as rape?” “Did you forgive?” “How did you develop a satisfying sexual relationship?” The major theme that ties the book together is how her marriage continued to thrive during her darkest years of recovery.  Long list of Resources on her website

Two important videos to watch from former Miss America Marilyn Van Derbur

(Just a note – I have not read this book, only came across the story & thought I needed to make the video interview  heard)