I’m honored to be the co-author of Stacey Lannert’s memoir, called Redemption, which comes out today. Today happens to be International Women’s Day, a most excellent time to promote awareness about child sexual abuse.

I met Stacey in 2002 when I wrote about her for Glamour magazine. She was still in prison then. When she was released in 2009, I was lucky that she still had my phone number and thought to call me. The rest was synergy.

I waited a few weeks for her to tell me what was on both of our minds: She wanted to write her book. Over the next two years, that’s exactly what we did. I interviewed her endlessly, and she patiently and emotionally answered many hard questions about her life. She held nothing back with one intention: She has a vision of ending the cycle of child abuse in America. She believes that if she shares her story, she can help others.

We’ve also created a non-profit organization and website called Healing Sisters to this end. If we talk about child abuse, we can bring the subject out of the darkness and into the light. If we communicate and educate ourselves, we can prevent tragic events from happening to our children. You can like us on Facebook here.

Listen to Stacey’s radio interview with Diane Rehm from NPR. She is scheduled to appear on CNN’s Piers Morgan tonight at 9 EST.

I’m proud–and again, honored–to be a part of this book project.