Speak Up and Fight

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a fighter.

Before she reached her eighteenth birthday, Taekwondo champion Kaylynne Venn had experienced 23 emergency room visits, 11 nights in hospital beds, and over 10 attempts to escape the pain of her post-traumatic stress disorder. Raped by a classmate in her first year of high school, she spent her five years in survival mode, fighting to keep afloat in a sea of shame and silence.

In her powerful memoir, Speak Up and Fight, she shows how she broke through that silence to reclaim her voice, diving into the challenges she faced within the mental health system and in her legal battle against her rapist. From self-harm to suicide attempts and her family’s suffering, The long-lasting effects of her assault expand far beyond the start of the horror she experience-revealing a deep, personal struggle to survive in a world that too often refused to listen.

Yet in sharing her journey from victimhood to survivorship, she aims to encourage others to speak up, support one another, and work fighting all together toward healing and justice.

Author Biography

Kaylynne Venn is a Taekwondo athlete who earned her black belt and is passionate about working in the mental health field, supporting youth in crisis. She lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with her family, who have been an important part of her healing journey and continue to support her as she shares her story. As a survivor, Kaylynne writes and speaks openly about sexual violence and mental health, using her lived experience to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and take the first steps toward becoming a strong voice for change.