Elizabeth Ann Gilmour (née Smart; born November 3, 1987)[1] is an American child safety activist and commentator for ABC News.

[2] She gained national attention at age 14 when she was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City by Brian David Mitchell.

Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, held Smart captive for nine months until she was rescued by police officers on a street in Sandy, Utah.

Two witnesses recognized abductors Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee from an America's Most Wanted episode.

[citation needed] On November 16, 2009, Barzee pled guilty to assisting in the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors.

On March 8, 2006, Smart spoke before the United States Congress to support sexual predator legislation and the AMBER Alert system.

[14][15] In October 2009, Smart spoke at the 2009 Women's Conference in California (hosted by Maria Shriver) on the topic of overcoming obstacles in life.

Having been raped by her captor, she recalled the destructive impact of exposure to abstinence-only sexual education programs such as those stressed in her Mormon faith.

The bill would create an optional curriculum for use in Utah schools to provide training on child sexual abuse prevention.

[30] In early 2015, Faith Counts featured Smart in a video in which she explains how her religion sustained her through her ordeal and helped her heal.

[32] Various state politicians have proposed bills that would require all computers to have a pornography filter, branding it the "Elizabeth Smart Law."

[41] On November 11, 2009, Smart left Salt Lake City to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paris.

[42][43] Smart temporarily returned from her mission in November 2010 to serve as the chief witness in the federal trial of Brian David Mitchell.

[55] In 2019, Smart's father, Ed, came out as gay and left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, leading to the divorce of her parents.

[56][57] In 2019, while traveling home to Utah aboard a Delta Air Lines flight, Smart alleged that she was awakened by a male passenger next to her rubbing her inner thigh.