sunday spotlight: grace
Sunday Spotlight is a series where we profile individuals in the Young Mormon Feminists community to hear their stories and get to know them a little better through Q&A or their personal narratives. This week we talked with Grace Miller.
Who are you and what are you up to?
I’m a twenty year old college student and freelance writer. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and left in 2011 to study political science at BYU, where I started writing for BlenderBottle and Young Mormon Feminists. I’ve since returned to Washington and spend most of my time staring aimlessly through Starbucks windows.
What makes you a Mormon?
In high school, Mormonism was my lifeline. The men and women at church talked about the “less active” as if apostasy were the worst thing that could happen to a person, so I clung to it.
I told my classmates that I knew God existed because I had prayed about it. When my closest friend came out to me as bisexual, I told her that bisexuality wasn’t real. I assumed that my peers were less happy than I was because they didn’t have the gospel. I was dismissive and judgmental.
When I left to attend BYU, it became harder and harder to keep the faith. I didn’t see anything wrong with the things the church me were wrong. I wanted the priesthood. I stopped believing in the Atonement. I lost my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.
At the end of my second year of school, I married my abuser in the temple. I annulled my marriage and left the church a year later.
For better or worse, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will always be my culture. It’s made me who I am.
What makes you a feminist?
I am tired of being patronized, pedestalized, and objectified because of my sex. I want liberation. More than anything, I want to live in a world where people are free to choose whatever makes them happiest.
What makes you a Mormon feminist?
Of all the places I’ve felt marginalized, church was the worst. It was at church that I learned to be ashamed of my body, my sexuality, and my desire. It was at church I learned that I couldn’t be a worthy mother unless I was also a stay-at-home parent. And it was in the temple I learned that I came second before God.
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Married and living in a city on the coast. Possibly rich and famous.
Any parting words for us?
Don’t apologize for doing the things that make you happy.
Young Mormon Feminists 
One Response to “sunday spotlight: grace”
Whoop, I dated her!
Pretty much exactly the same experience at byu, although I’m much less effected by the sexism, my wife and I Ultimately left the church and the school.
I wish the church was organized by our generation. What a shame.