For UFC women’s strawweight Paige VanZant, a sexual assault she suffered in high school didn’t become real until she told her parents.

Today, she’s sharing her story with the world in hopes she can help others. VanZant’s new book, “Rise: Surviving the Fight of My Life,” details her struggles with bullying and sexual assault before finding martial arts.

“I really hope that if I can change one life, then me telling my story is worth it,” VanZant (7-4 MMA, 4-3 UFC) told ABC’s “Good Morning America” about the book, which goes on sale today.

VanZant, 24, is now a UFC fighter with a 4-3 octagon record. She’s parlayed her fighting career into entertainment work; she finished second on the 22nd season of “Dancing with the Stars” and won a celebrity epsiode of “Chopped.”

But as a teenager in Dayton, Ore., VanZant said her life was painful and lonely. She recalled bullying so intense she was forced to eat her lunch in the bathroom to avoid her tormentors. The bullying prompted her to seek the affection of men.

One night, a 14-year-old VanZant attended a party with a guy and instantly knew she was in trouble.

“I felt like I was a smart girl,” she told “GMA.” “My parents raised me well. They raised me to know better and to have some intuition, and it all went out the window just because I was so lonely, and I was in so much pain. All I could think about is like, ‘Wow, I have somebody that wants to be my friend.’

“When I walked in the door of their house, I was like, ‘This probably isn’t a good idea.”

What happened next, VanZant wrote in the book, was a total loss of control. Later that night, she said she was gang raped.

“They move me around,” she wrote. “They change my position. I fail each time I try to resist, my limbs like wet cement on my body, my brain a heavy fog. I am awake and conscious, but my body feels dead.

“I know what is happening but can do nothing to stop it. I have no voice or choice but to submit and pray that it ends soon.”

When her classmates found out about the encounter at school, VanZant said she became suicidal.

“I didn’t see any other way out,” she told “GMA.” “When you’re in that position, when in you’re feeling that much pain, it’s not that you want to die. You just don’t want to be in pain any more.”

VanZant’s saving grace was fighting. After her family moved her to Reno, Nev., she went with her father to an MMA class at the famed Lion’s Den. Immediately, coaches saw her potential and encouraged her to begin training.

VanZant fell in love with MMA and had her first professional fight at 18, winning a split decision at a local show. She amassed a 3-1 record before the UFC recruited her for “The Ultimate Fighter 20,” which introduced the women’s strawweight class to the UFC. She was scratched from the show before filming because, at 20, she was too young to compete. But she was still offered a fight contract.

VanZant most recently was seen in the octagon at UFC Fight Night 124, where she fought through a broken arm before losing a decision to Jessica-Rose Clark (9-5 MMA, 2-0 UFC).

“MMA fighting definitely saved my life,” she said. “It saved who I was as a person, too.”

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