© Bang ShowbizJessica Simpson
Jessica Simpson has found it "life-changing" having women open up to her about the abuse they have experienced.
The 40-year-old star revealed in her memoir, 'Open Book', that she was abused as a child by the daughter of a family friend and her admission has prompted a flood of letters from people who have undergone similar ordeals, which the 'Dukes of Hazzard' star has found "overwhelming, beautiful, and humbling".
She told People magazine: "The feeling is overwhelming, beautiful and humbling all at once.
"I decided to write the book hoping I could help someone who feels overwhelmed by life, needing to read a way through all the hidden places and not feel alone with their pain. It was written to the someone who knows there is more for them in this life, but just needs encouragement to get through it with compassion for the hard stuff.
"The personal offerings of courage, resilience and hope that people have entrusted me with over the past year have meant more to me than they will ever know.
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"The stories have reintroduced me to my ambition as a leader. The hearts and faces behind those stories will stick with me for the rest of my life."
The blonde beauty - who has children Maxwell, eight, Ace, seven, and two-year-old Birdie with husband Eric Johnson - is "profoundly grateful" to the women who have opened up to her and given her "the opportunity to carry out [her] purpose" with her autobiography.
Jessica has previously admitted she felt "very shameful" when she was being abused and still finds her ordeal "painful", especially because she didn't know how to stop it.
Reflecting on confronting her abuser as part of her own healing, she said: "I needed to confront my abuser.
"It was extremely painful and still is. It's still shocking. That little girl in me wanting to do the right thing, not knowing how to stand up for herself and not knowing how to stop it.
"I felt like a lot of who I am, the character of who I am, was built through the trials and the pain of abuse.
"I allowed it to happen, so I felt that I was as much of the abuser as the abused. So I was very shameful during that time, from 6 to 12 years old."