With honesty, vulnerability, passion, and courage, Tanya Selvaratnam draws from her personal story growing up around violence to offer a blueprint for a violence-free world. By providing a global context about the generational cycle of violence, she advocates for a society in which everyone feels safe, feels loved, feels seen, heard, and held. A talk to share, and a message to spread…for more peace and kindness in our lives and world. Tanya Selvaratnam is a Multimedia Storyteller and Advocate. As a filmmaker, she has received multiple Emmy nominations and Webby awards; and her projects have played on HBO, IFC, PBS, and the New Yorker, and at the Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca, and SXSW festivals. She is the author of Assume Nothing about intimate violence and The Big Lie about fertility awareness; her essays have been published in the New York Times, Vogue, ELLE, Cosmo, Glamour, Daily Beast, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. She is an Advisor to the Open Future Lab, Pop Culture Collaborative, Economic Hardship Reporting Project, Sankofa, Let It Ripple, and The DO School. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University, where she studied Chinese language and the history of law. Born in Sri Lanka and raised in Long Beach, CA, Tanya is based in New York City and Portland, Oregon. More info at tanyaturnsup.com. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx