Amber Tamblyn Is Pregnant & Her Announcement Is Powerful & Important

On Wednesday, it was announced that actress Amber Tamblyn is pregnant with her first child. She and husband, David Cross, will be welcoming a daughter into this world. And while this is all very exciting news, it is the way that Tamblyn announced her pregnancy that will surely be making waves.

The announcement of her pregnancy is much more than that. While there is no doubt that fans, friends, and most importantly, family will be excited about the new addition, her essay in which she revealed it is almost more powerful than any "We're expecting!" news can be. The essay, for Glamour, outlines a phone call that Tamblyn says she wishes she could "avoid forever." A phone call in which she shared that she was sexually assaulted — a story that went viral not long ago. She shared the story with her mom, and explains her mom's reaction to be "unshockingly unshocked." Why? Because her mother had a story of her own that she wanted to share.

Tamblyn says that her mom said that she had shared the story with her own mother (Tamblyn's grandmother), who responded, “Boys will be boys. You just have to be really careful around them." This "wisdom," as Tamblyn calls out, is not the wisdom we want to be passing down to younger generations. To tell our daughters, and our granddaughters, to "take a backseat in their own lives, telling them it’s okay: men know how to drive and know what they’re doing... Boys will be boys and girls will be, what? Quiet. Hungry. Subservient. Game."

Tamblyn continues on to say that motherhood has been a topic she has been thinking a lot about lately. Why? Because — here it comes — she is going to be a mother to a daughter soon. This news has made her think a lot about the world she is bringing her daughter into, and that is where the message (and news) becomes extremely important to read.

Will I get a phone call from my daughter someday, one she never wanted to make? Will I have to share with her my story, and the story of her great-grandmother’s words to her grandmother? Is it possible to protect her from inheriting this pain? How much do I have to do, as a daughter and a soon-to-be mother, to change not just the conversation about how women are seen, but the language with which conversations are spoken in?

Her essay begins to take a more political turn noting that one candidate in the election knows what it is like. She knows what it is like to be a daughter, a mother, a grandmother. She knows what it is like to serve for others. "This is not a think piece asking you to reconsider Hillary Clinton’s voting record," Tamblyn says, urging readers to "rethink women, period."

Congratulations to Amber Tamblyn and husband, David Cross. Congratulations on the soon-to-be addition to your family, and congratulations to paving the way for your daughter and many daughters ahead.