Elizabeth Smart, child-abduction victim, activist, and nationally renowned speaker, spoke before an audience of high-school girls and members of the community in her keynote speech at the Louisiana Girls Leadership Academy closing ceremony at Nicholls State University on June 11.

“Whether it be family, health, or work-related, we all come across hard times,” Smart said. “The people who stand out most to me are the ones who do not let their problems define them.”
“It is the people that made the choice to move forward that I have always been most awed by,” Smart said.

In 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City home and held captive for nine months by Brian David Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee.

No one had ever told Smart what to do if someone tried to take her from her bedroom in the middle of the night; no one mentioned that over 80 percent of children who fight back get away.

“If you ever catch on fire, you stop drop and roll. I was told don’t talk to strangers, but I was never told what I should do if someone tried to kidnap me or take me out of my bedroom,” Smart said.

The only knowledge she had of kidnappings was that a body was usually always found along with evidence of extreme abuse. When she realized what was happening, she stopped climbing and asked the man to kill her there so that her parents would be able to find the body.

Hidden away in the mountains near her home, she endured what no child should ever suffer. She was raped daily, and said that she “felt like there was no reason to continue.”

She sometimes felt like death would be better than living and being tortured, but the memories of her family and friends helped her through that hard time.

When she felt disgusting and thought no one would want anything to do with her, she remembered how her mother said she would always love her, no matter what. When she realized that her family would always love her, she made the decision to survive, a decision that saw her through the darkest moments of her nine-month captivity.

“The best punishment you could ever give him is to be happy, to move forward with your life, and to do exactly what you want to do. By feeling sorry for yourself, you’re only allowing him to steal more of your life, and he does not deserve that, he does not deserve a single second more,” Smart said.

She said that to many people she would always be the girl who was kidnapped, but she is happy because she has been able to help others through her foundation and through legislation.
“Yes, I was kidnapped,” Smart said, “but I have also worked on legislation. I am no longer sorry for what happened to me.”

In a press conference following her speech, Smart said she likes to think she is getting better each and every day.

Her advice to anyone who has gone through a similar experience would be to take the time they need to heal and find a new normal.

The Elizabeth Smart Foundation, whose mission is to prevent and stop predatory crimes and to bring victims home. In addition to abduction prevention education, one of the foundation’s focuses is on Internet crime against children. Child pornography is becoming more prevalent and less than one percent of all child pornography cases are being investigated.

Smart said that besides calling lawmakers and local leaders, another way to raise awareness is by talking amongst each other. Even talking to children about what is and is not okay is a step in the right direction.

Smart wrote about her experience in her New York Times best-selling novel, My Story.

The Louisiana Girls Leadership Academy is sponsored by the Louisiana Center for Women in Government and Business housed at Nicholls. It is a four-day program, which aims to prepare high school girls for future leadership roles.