The Guardian

What I learned when naked pictures of me were leaked online | Sophia Ankel

When I sent intimate photos to a boyfriend, I never imagined the fallout. Sadly, my experience is increasingly common• This article has won the 2018 Hugo Young Award, which champions political opinion writing among UK postgraduate journalism students
‘It is hard to describe my feelings in the moment I found out that boys were showing my pictures around my old school.’ Photograph: DPA Picture Alliance/Alamy Stock Photo

Three years ago, nude pictures of me made the rounds online. There were two and they had been taken in my bathroom several months earlier. One showed my stomach and my bare chest and the other was a long mirror shot of me topless, with my face on full display. I was even smiling – a gesture made for the eyes of my then long-distance boyfriend, to whom I had sent them via Facebook.

When you’re a teenager, it’s common to hear stories about other girls discovering their naked pictures on porn sites

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Guardian

The Guardian4 min read
Whether In Song Or In Silence, Shane MacGowan Exuded The Very Essence Of Life
Shane MacGowan and I sat in near silence for two hours last year. We were at his home, just outside Dublin. I’d been warned by his wife, the writer Victoria Mary Clarke, that he was depressed and anxious, not really in the mood to talk. But nothing c
The Guardian7 min read
Gwyneth Paltrow: Is Her Life A Work Of Performance Art?
Ripping to shreds Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop gift list has been a media preoccupation for years now, to the point that the website even titles it, “The ridiculous but awesome gift guide”. Still, even those not driven by well-documented animus towards Pal
The Guardian4 min read
‘Perfect Linearity’: Why Botticelli’s Drawing Abilities Remain One-of-a-kind
Throughout the Renaissance, drawings became an integral part of the massive paintings and frescoes that have long been associated with that period. Among other things, they were a way for artists to get a feel for how to arrange the space of a compos

Related Books & Audiobooks