Kelly's story went viral because of the way she chose to share it: a striking Instagram post featuring a picture of the bathroom, her battered face, and a screenshot of her GPS tracker, which had recorded her frantic escape.
Initially, Kelly was driven to share her story out of frustration with the way it had been reported on. "The article that came out the next day was just like, 'Woman attacked in bathroom, punched 7 times, and escapes.' And I hated it," she said. The point of her story, Kelly thought, was not just that she'd survived but how she'd survived. She'd taken self-defense class and used what she'd learned to save her own life.
"It was really important to me to let people know that I wasn't lucky, even though some people insist that I was. I was prepared, and I fought like hell to get out of that situation," she told POPSUGAR. She stressed the importance of physical preparation, like taking a self-defense class, as well as mental: running through that scenario and deciding on a plan of attack. "You have to give yourself a fighting chance by arming yourself with the knowledge of self-defense," Kelly said. By sharing her story, she could encourage others to learn how to protect themselves, too.
