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Gaia Rose

@gaiacawleyx

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Documenting my journey to Dr Gaia
📖 @cambridgeuniversity PhD
👩🏻‍💼Building @whydidntyouleaveuk
🌟Big Issue Top 100 Changemaker ‘26
📷My YouTube ↓

POSTS STORIES REELS

Introducing… Why Didn’t You Leave? 🗣️❤️‍🩹

🚨TW: Domestic Abuse

Picture this. The year is 2018. At a time when 18-year-old Gaia should be enjoying her first year of university and focusing on her studies, behind the scenes she is also enduring daily coercive and controlling behaviour at the hands of her boyfriend. A person who she trusted and thought had her best interests at heart.

Next February will mark 6 years since I left him.

It was only once I reached out to university support services for advice on assignment extensions, that I finally learned what I’d experienced was domestic abuse.

I couldn’t believe it. You see gender-based violence in the news daily, but you never think one day you too will experience it.

But the abuse didn’t stop there.

10 months of constant harassment, stalking, death threats and other post-separation abuse tactics. While my coursemates were studying for our first-year exams, I was seeking support from @womens_aid.

I assumed though, that as time went on everything would get better. But I soon came to the shocking realisation of how common victim blaming is in domestic abuse cases. From managers and co-workers to family and friends, I was told things such as:

💬“Surely you must have done something to cause that”
💬“Well you let him abuse you so”
💬“Really? But he was always nice to me”
💬“Just ignore [the stalking and harassment] and live your life”

So on this first day of Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, it is my pleasure to launch ‘Why Didn’t You Leave?’ 💜

A community page dedicated to spreading awareness about domestic abuse and tackling stigma and victim blaming 📣🌎 Through educational resources and campaigns, I want to increase public understanding and show why an individual may not leave an abusive situation 💭🫂

If you would like to get involved, give us a follow @whydidntyouuk & keep your eyes open for upcoming opportunities ✨

#whydidntyouleave #coercivecontrol #ipv #gbv #victimblaming #domesticabuseawareness #domesticabuseawarenessmonth #dasurvivor #communitypage #socialactivism #endingthecycle #breakthestigma by @gaiacawleyx

Gaia Rose Cawley BSc (Hons), MSc, and Graduation Student Speaker 🎓

Against all the odds, I achieved a Distinction overall, with an average grade of 77 across my assignments.

Deeply grateful to have been chosen as Student Speaker to address the university on behalf of my fellow graduates in Guildhall 🏛️

Next stop, PhD 🤍

#classof2024 #mastersgraduation #graduationceremony #portsmouthguildhall #uopgrad #universityofportsmouth #portsmouthuniversity #studentspeaker #roadtophd by @gaiacawleyx

‘Controlled: Can I Trust My Partner?’, airing 2nd December on Channel 4 & YouTube 🤍

Secret’s out! After several months in the making, I am so excited to finally announce that I am part of the new @channel4 documentary, exploring the rise of domestic abuse amongst young people 🎥

Experiencing domestic abuse changed the course of my life.

As a young survivor-turned-campaigner, I am now using my lived experience to call for systemic change, including better preventative education.

16-19 year olds experience the highest rates of domestic abuse, than any other age group (ONS, 2024).

Abusers aren’t monsters in dark alleyways; they’re everyday people, walking amongst us.

I’m so proud of be involved in this film and a massive thank you to @rosedoesdrawings @natasha_mccabe @daisylmaskell and True Vision Productions.

The film will be available to stream on the Channel 4 app and YouTube, as part of their @untoldc4 series, before being broadcast on TV on Thursday 18th December 📺

#Channel4 #UNTOLDChannel4 #TrueVisionProductions #Controlled #DomesticAbuseSurvivor #16DaysOfActivism by @gaiacawleyx

GRWM for Matriculation Day 2 at the University of Cambridge 🎓🥂🏛️

#cambridgeuniversity #matriculation #oxbridge #newnhamcollege #phdstudent by @gaiacawleyx

I have officially matriculated and begun my PhD at the University of Cambridge, as an ESRC-funded and Harding Distinguished Scholar 🏛️🎓

It’s an honour to join Newnham College, Cambridge’s pioneering women’s college that paved the way for women’s education, academic research and rights. Signing my name in the college’s historic matriculation book, alongside my fellow Newnhamites, was a truly unforgettable moment.

This is for every woman who could not/can not access education because of their gender 🤍

“There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind’ - Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Here’s to this next exciting chapter! ✨

#cambridgeuniversity #phddiaries #newnhamcollege #scholarship #drgaiapending by @gaiacawleyx

Did you know that 16-19-year-olds experience the highest rates of domestic abuse of any age group, yet mandatory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) currently ends at 16?

Last Monday, I was invited to Westminster to join @makeitmandatory and @killedwomennw to launch The Unofficial Curriculum, a mock textbook exposing the harmful content and messages young people are being taught by the internet, in place of high-quality formal RSE 📱💻

As a survivor of domestic abuse in a teenage relationship, I have experienced first-hand the consequences of not equipping young people with the skills and terminology to have healthy relationships and to identify abuse.

Ultimately, Relationships Education saves lives.

It was an honour to stand in Parliament Square alongside fellow survivors, campaigners, MPs and organisations 💜

On 4th December, MPs will debate the Relationships and Sex Education (Further Education) Bill. It would close a vital gap by extending compulsory RSE to 18, and would help protect future generations of young people 👏

Please show your support by contacting your local MP to back the Bill (takes 1 minute via @makeitmandatory ‘s link in bio!) ✍️

#MakeItMandatory #RSE #DomesticAbuseAwarenessMonth #BackTheBill by @gaiacawleyx

New chapter of my life, new hair 🤍👱🏼‍♀️

Done by the lovely Charlotte & Gabrielle at @francescohair.streetly

#newfringe #wispyfringe #hairtransition #phddiaries #hairreveal by @gaiacawleyx

Yesterday, I was invited to Westminster to join @makeitmandatory and @killedwomennw to support their campaign to make Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) mandatory up to the age of 18, alongside the launch of The Unofficial Curriculum, a mock textbook revealing what young people are being taught by the internet when schools aren’t giving them the tools to navigate it.

As a survivor, advocate and campaigner, I know how important education is in preventing abuse, recognising unhealthy relationships and empowering young people to understand what is and isn’t acceptable. Education is protection, and young people deserve to be equipped with the knowledge to keep themselves and others safe.

On 4th December, MPs will debate the Relationships and Sex Education (Further Education) Bill. This is an opportunity to help create safer futures for the next generation.

Email your MP and ask them to back the Bill. We cannot afford to leave young people without the education they need 💜

#MakeItMandatory #KilledWomen #RSE #EducationIsProtection by @gaiacawleyx

Hey fringe, it’s been a while! 👋💇🏻‍♀️🎀 (like 15 years!)

#hairtransformation #wispyfringe #newfringe by @gaiacawleyx

Our Maxie (20/09/14-20/09/26) 🕊️🩵

Words fail me. It doesn’t feel real that you are no longer here 💔 Smiling up at me. Sitting on my lap. Wiggling your bum excitedly when I walk through the front door. My cockapoo teddy bear 🧸

If you had a superpower, it would be love. They always talk about how a dog’s love is unconditional, and with you Max, we felt it. You loved and you loved deeply.

In 12 years, you touched so many people’s hearts and made such a profound impact.

The cockapoo who barked at wheelie bins, loved cheese and cake, brought you a teddy, whose foot tapped in his sleep, ate bubbles in the bath and who gave the best cuddles. The list is endless.

I’m so grateful you held on to see the 1st hour of your 12th birthday. A poetic ending to an incredible, one of a kind pooch 💘🎂

Though you are no longer physically here, I know you will forever walk alongside me 🐾

Thank you for being the sweetest, funniest boy. I will love you ‘til the end of time 🫶 by @gaiacawleyx

This feels like an absolute DREAM 🥹 Only a month to go now before I move to Cambridge to start my PhD at the Institute of Criminology! 🎓🏛️📖

If only younger me could see me now!

Dr Gaia Pending…

#cambridgeuniversity #phdstudent #phddiaries #criminologystudent #oxbridge by @gaiacawleyx

Today is GCSE Results Day.

Marking 10 years since I nervously opened my own GCSE results.

By doing my own spin on the ‘2026 is the new 2016’ trend and sharing my story, I want to show that life does not end when you receive disappointing grades, and that everything works out in the end.

Though they feel important in the moment, letters on paper are not everything or the sole measure of your worth and potential.

You are so much more.

It took some time, but I now understand that my earlier struggles did not make me any less capable or intelligent than my peers.

In just over a month, I will be embarking on a PhD at @cambridgeuniversity, fully funded by an extremely prestigious joint scholarship. 🎓 This would not be happening if my younger self had given up.

Keep going. Keep dreaming. ❤️

#GCSEResultsDay #10YearJourney #2016vs2026 #Oxbridge #SelfBelief by @gaiacawleyx