Amanda Nguyen: A Survivor, A Fighter, A Voice of Change
Janaky and I started 'ThinkHer' to discuss women in society—our achievements, stories, fights, and struggles. Along the journey, sometimes I found myself questioning the purpose of this process. What are we achieving out of this? Are we changing anything? Can we shift perspectives with posts and reels? As we continued exploring stories to build our page, I came across Amanda Nguyen. Her story was a powerful reminder that even small beginnings can lead to a better world. For her, it all started with one group email copied to every person she knew. Her journey—from surviving a broken system to changing U.S. law, to representing women in space shows that when we speak, act, and demand better, we’re not just telling stories. We’re reshaping society.
made on Canva by ThinkHer
Born on October 10, 1991, in California, Amanda Nguyen is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees. As she grew up, her father’s anger turned their home into a place of fear and violence. The desire to get away from this fear, to find refuge, planted the seed of going to space in her, 'a way to escape', she says. After attending Centennial High School, she pursued her higher education at Harvard University in astrophysics. She gained valuable experience through internships at NASA, where she researched exoplanets, nurturing her dream of becoming an astronaut. With just three months left until graduation and a bright future ahead—including an offer to work as a CIA spy—one incident at a frat party changed her life forever.
Nguyen was raped, one so planned and precise that she was convinced her rapist had done it before. Suddenly, her body was a crime scene. As she lay on the hospital bed, dazed and bruised, she was expected to process information, answer questions, and make decisions that could impact her life. Does she want to press charges? Did she want evidence to be collected? Was she able to undergo an intrusive procedure? Did she want to keep it anonymous? Feeling overwhelmed, she decided to delay filing charges until she felt emotionally, mentally and financially equipped. She underwent a rape kit examination, lot of testes were done, numerous pills were given, she was discharged with a nearly $4500 bill and a lot of documents. She was informed that the evidences collected would be stored in case one day she chose to initiate a police report – the statute of limitations for prosecuting rape in Massachusetts was 15 years.
As she navigated through the aftermath, building courage, strengthening herself, she encountered a nonsensical legal system: her rape kit was set to be destroyed after six months unless she filed a complex extension request. The rape kit was vital evidence, Why would she go through a 3-4 hours long invasive procedure for it to be destroyed before it’s even tested? The very thought of requesting this extension was painful, she found the process both opaque and retraumatizing. The very system designed to protect and provide justice to rape survivors, revictimized them. The injustice made her question, "If I was struggling through the system, what about those who didn't have my resources?"
She decided to act on it by sending a group email, copying almost everyone she knew in it, explaining what she wanted to change and why. The response was overwhelming, many survivors wrote back to her with their stories, friends came forward to help build websites, draft bills, and calculate the economic impact. Ultimately, she built a team of survivors into a powerful grassroots movement, Rise, a nonprofit organisation aimed to protect the civil rights of sexual assault and rape survivors. Through Rise, she drafted the Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act, which included the right not to have your rape kit destroyed until the statute of limitations expired, and the right not to have to pay for it to be carried out. The bill was unanimously passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2016.
Though Nguyen had never seen herself as an activist, she was one now. She says, "I had a choice. I could accept the injustice or rewrite the law, so I rewrote it". Nguyen's advocacy extended beyond U.S. borders. She played a pivotal role in the United Nations' adoption of a resolution affirming the rights of sexual assault survivors worldwide. She conducted a fashion show during New York Fashion Week in the Museum of Modern Art, with models who were survivors of sexual assault. In 2021, she became a prominent voice in the movement to stop violence against Asian Americans.
In 2019, Nguyen was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2022, she was one of Time magazine's women of the year. In 2021 she became a scientist astronaut candidate at the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences researching women's health and menstruation. In 2025, she fulfilled her childhood aspiration of becoming an astronaut by becoming the first Vietnamese American woman to travel to space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard mission. During the flight, she tested materials for menstrual products and wound dressings. She told The Guardian, "Historically, NASA barred women from becoming astronauts and one of the reasons they cited the most was menstruation, that’s why I’m doing it”.
Amanda Nguyen's story is a reminder of the impact one person can have in challenging and reshaping institutions. That fighting for justice, even for one person, can ripple outward and spark a movement. This blog isn’t just about Amanda Nguyen. It’s about all of us who believe that even small beginnings—an email, a post, a page, a conversation—can lead to a better world.
Written by Parvathy Ramachandran and edited by Janaky S. @ThinkHer
References:
1.https://en.wikipedia.org/
2. https://timesofindia.
3. https://www.theguardian.
4. https://www.youtube.com/
5. https://www.youtube.com/
You are right Parvathi.Good work both of you đź‘Źđź‘Ź
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot
Delete