Grace Brown was sick of hearing about sexual assault. Having spoken with so many survivors over the years, she grew increasingly frustrated by her inability to help. Then, one night last October, another friend confessed that she too had been abused and it turned out to be the final straw. Brown went to bed determined to act and in the morning Project Unbreakable was born.

The project uses photography to help survivors of sexual assault take back the power of the words used against them by their attacker/s and aid in the healing process. Participants write these phrases on a piece of cardboard and Brown, a 19-year-old freshman at The School of Visual Arts in New York City, takes their picture and uploads it on the project's website.

"It's not something that you really think about. A survivor can tell their story of abuse to someone but the words are never really said," said Brown. "They bury themselves in a pit in their stomach and then it's forgotten about. You realise this is something a human said to another human; it's very important that they not hold onto those words because they are incredibly powerful."

Just as powerful are the images she creates. Amassing a tremendous amount of followers from around the world in just five short months, women and men as far as Australia, Europe and the Middle East have submitted their own photos to the site. What's especially striking is the number of people willing to show their faces, essentially outing themselves as survivors of sexual assault. A distinct departure from the unwarranted but all too common guilt and shame associated with abuse.

"I initially photographed people that I knew, as I've known a lot of survivors and I asked them to participate and it really just snowballed from there," she said. "In the beginning most people didn't show their faces. It wasn't until maybe a month in. People are getting braver and it's been really amazing to watch it grow."