Women Who "Dated" Older Men As Teens Are Sharing How They Realized They Were Actually Predators, And It's Heartbreaking

Again, guys at my school saw me as the quiet nerd, so if you don't think your quiet, studious daughter could fall prey to something like this, think again." —Anonymous, Pennsylvania"Seriously WTF?!" —Anonymous, Ohio"Neither he nor any of his friends had anything in common with me. I finally got out, but it took me until my 20s — when he was nearing 40 — to realize how much of a hold he had over me, how he had groomed me for this when I was too young to understand what I was getting into, and how bad this was." —Anonymous, United Kingdom"I didn’t realize it at the time, but after years of therapy, I realized what he was doing." —Anonymous, Texas"He would know how to gain our trust in a new situation to make us feel comfortable and included. I had told him I was a virgin and didn’t mess around with a guy who wasn’t my boyfriend — so we never had sex. I told him I'd met someone else who didn't make me feel emotional whiplash like he did, and that I wanted him to leave me alone. They're so close that I'd never have been able to break up with him — and I think he knew that, too." —Anonymous, United Kingdom